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CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND 
DAMASCUS 


4> 


If 


Byfejmission  of  the  Hon.  yohn  Colhet 


THE   SPHINX. 


CAIRO 

JERUSALEM,  AND 

DAMASCUS 


THREE    CHIEF    CITIES    OF 
THE    EGYPTIAN    SULTANS 


BY 

D.  S.  MARGOLIOUTH,  D.  Litt. 

With  Illustrations  in  Colour  by 
W.  S.  S.  TYRWHITT,   R.B.A. 


CJ 


Lgj— -r<f>V^ 


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Nem  fork 

Dodd,  Mead  and  Company 

1907 


Copyright,  1907,  by 
DODD,  MEAD   &   COMPANY 


Published  October,  igoy 


OEDICATED  TO  HER 
HIGHNESS  PRINCESS 
NAZLI,  DAUGHTER 
OF  MUSTAFA  FADE 
PASHA  AND  GREAT-GRAND- 
DAUGHTER OF  MOHAM- 
MED ALI  PASHA 
Madame, — I  utilise  your  kindly  per- 
mission  to  dedicate  a  book  to  you  by 
offering  this,  in  the  confidence  that 
the  work  of  the  artists  will  have  your 
approval,  whatever  may  be  your 
judgment  on  the  text.  The  scenes 
which  they  have  painted,  and  which 
I  have  attempted  to  describe,  are 
familiar  to  your  Highness  from 
childhood.  In  and  about  them  your 
ancestors  have  played  a  great  part, 
and  two  out  of  the  three  cities  illus- 
trated here  are  indissolubly  con- 
nected with  their  names.  It  has  long 
been  your  Highnesses  custom  to  judge 
with  leniency  and  sympathy  what- 
ever comes  from  this  country  to 
yours;  may  the  same  charity  be  ex- 
tended to  this  book. 

Your  Highness' s  humble  servant, 
THE  AUTHOR 


PREFACE 

CHE  task  of  composing  the  letterpress  to  ac- 
company Mr.  Walter  Tyrwhitt's  paintings 
of  scenes  at  Cairo,  Jerusalem  and  Damas- 
cus was  offered  to  the  present  writer,  an 
occasional  visitor  at  those  cities,  as  a  relief  from  the 
labour  of  editing  and  translating  Arabic  texts.  The 
chance  of  being  associated  at  any  time  in  his  life  with 
the  Fine  Arts  constituted  a  temptation  which  he  was 
unable  to  resist. 

The  account  of  Cairo  has  been  based  on  the  Khitat 
Taufikiyyah  Jaddiah  of  Ali  PasHA  Mubarak,  cor- 
rected and  supplemented  from  various  sources, 
especially  the  admirable  memoirs  published  by  the 
French  Archaeological  Mission  at  Cairo,  and  bearing 
the  names  of  Ravaisse,  CASANOVA,  and  VAnBercHEM. 
Monographs  dealing  with  particular  buildings  have 
been  used  when  available,  especially  those  of  Herz 
Bey:  the  author  regrets  that  he  has  not  been  able  to 
get  access  to  all  this  eminent  architect's  works.  Of 
historical  treatises  employed  he  need  only  mention 
the  History  of  Modern  Egypt  (Arabic)  by  his  friend, 
G.  Zaidan,  which  has  been  of  use  especially  for  the 
Turkish  period. 

For  Chapter  XI  (Jerusalem)  the  author  must  ac- 

[vii] 


PREFACE 

knowledge  his  obligation  to  the  works  published  by 
the  Palestine  Exploration  Fund,  especially  those  by 
Wilson,  Warren,  Conder,  and  Lestrange.  For 
Chapter  XII  (Damascus)  he  has  derived  much  help 
from  the  Description  de  Damas,  translated,  with  an 
excellent  commentary,  by  M.  Sauvaire  of  the  In- 
stitut  in  the  Journal  Asiatique,  ser.  ix,  vols.  3,  4,  5, 
6,  and  7. 

The  architectural  paragraphs  have  been  either 
revised  or  written  by  Mrs.  MargolioutH,  who  has 
had  training  in  architectural  drawing.  The  treatises 
on  Arabic  Art  of  Gayet,  Saladin,  and  Lane-Poole 
have  been  studied  with  profit.  The  author  has,  how- 
ever, abstained  from  consulting  the  work  of  the 
last  of  these  writers  on  Cairo:  for,  owing  to  Mr. 
Lane-Poole's  unique  qualifications  for  dealing  with 
this  subject,  the  perusal  of  his  book  might  have  in- 
volved anyone  else  writing  on  the  same  theme  in 
plagiarism. 

Oxford,  September,  IQ07. 


[  viii  ] 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I,  Cairo  before  the  Fatimides i 

11.  The  Fatimide  Period 30 

III.  Buildings  of  the  Fatimide  Period     ....  65 

IV.  The  Ayyubid  Period  and  its  Buildings       .      .  81 
V.  The  First  Mameluke  Sovereign 107 

VI.  Nasir  and  His  Sons i39 

VII.  The  Early  Circassian  Mamelukes    .      .      .      .  170 

VIII.  The  Last  of  the  Circassian  Mamelukes     .      .  206 

IX.  The  Turkish  Period 228 

X.  The  Khedivia  Polderi 256 

XI.  Jerusalem:  An  Historical  Sketch     ....  293 

XII.  The  Praises  of  Damascus 366 

XIII.  Scenes  from  the  History  of  Damascus       .     .  402 

Appendix 453 


[ix] 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Sphinx Frontispiece 

Facing  Page 

The   Sentinel   of  the   Nile 2 

Tooloon  (Tulun)  Mosque,  Cairo 12 

In  a  Cairene  Street 20 

Midan-el-Adaoui  (Maidan  El-Adawi) 26 

Street  Scene,  Bab  el  Sharia   (Bab  Al-sha'Riyyah),  Cairo   .  34 

Old  Gateway  near  Bab-al-Wazir,  Cairo 42 

Sharia  el  Azhar   (Shari-al-Azhar),  Cairo 50 

Courtyard  of  the  Mosque  of  El  Azhar,  University  of  Cairo  58 
A  Mosque  in  the  Saida  Zeineb  (Sayyidah  Zainab)  Quarter, 

Cairo 66 

The  Citadel  of  Cairo     .      .  _ 74 

An  Old  Palace,  Cairo 82 

Door  of  a  Mosque,  Cairo 92 

Mosque  of  Sultan  Bibars  (Baibars),  Cairo 100 

The  Khan  El  Gamaliyeh  (Jamaliyyah),  Cairo     ....  108 

A  Street  near  El  Gamaliyeh  (Jamaliyyah),  Cairo     .      .      .  116 

Mosque  of  Almas;  Interior,  Cairo 124 

Minaret  of  Ibrahim  Agha's  Mosque,  Cairo 132 

Outside  the  Mosque  of  Ibrahim  Agha,  Cairo     .      .      .      .  140 

Ibrahim  Agha's  Mosque:  the  Interior 148 

The  Washing-place,  Ibrahim  Agha's  Mosque     .      .      .      .  156 

Interior  of  the  Mosque  of  Shakhoun  (Shaikhun),  Cairo     .  164 

The  Tentmakers' Bazaar,  Cairo 172 

[xi] 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing  Page 

An  Old  House  near  the  Tentmakers'  Bazaar,  Cairo     .      .  176 

Tombs  of  the  Caliphs,  Cairo 182 

The  Dome  of  El  Moaiyad  (Muayyad)  from  Bab  Zuweylch 

(Zuwailah),  Cairo 188 

A  Courtyard  near  the  Tentmakers'  Bazaar,  Cairo     .      .      .  200 

Palace  of  Kait  Bey  (Kaietbai),  Cairo 216 

The  Mosque  el  Ghoree  (Ghuri),  Cairo 222 

Mosques  in  the  Sharia  Bab  al  Wazir,  Cairo 230 

A  Side  Street  in  Cairo 236 

A  Street  Scene  in  Cairo 244 

Sharia  el  Kirabiyeh  or  Street  of  the  Water-Carriers,  Cairo     .  256 

The  Khan  el  Dobabiyeh  (Dubabiyyah),  Cairo     ....  266 

Cairo:   Shari   Darb  el  Gamamiz    (Jamamiz)      ....  274 

Souk  Silah,  the  Armourers'  Bazaar,  Cairo 284 

The  Fair,  Moolid  el  Ahmadee  (Maulid  Ahmadi),  Cairo       .  290 
Morning   in   Jerusalem:   The   Dome   of   the   Rock  on   the 

Shaded  Side 296 

Jerusalem:  The  Dome  of  Kait  Bey   (Kaietbai)    Haram-es- 

Shereef   (Sharif) 308 

The  Gate  of  the  Cotton  Merchants,  Jerusalem     ....  320 

South  Porch  of  Mosque  and  Summer  Pulpit,  Jerusalem     .  330 

Dome  of  the  Rock  from  Al  Aksa,  Jerusalem 346 

Haram  es  Shereef  (Sharif),  Jerusalem 356 

Damascus  from  the  Salahiyeh  (Salihiyyah)  :  Sunset  over  the 

City 368 

House  of  Naaman,  Damascus 374 

Tomb  of  Sheik  (Shaikh)  Arslan,  Damascus 382 

Walls  of  the  City  and  Barada  River,  Damascus     ...  388 

The  Hamareh  (Suk  Ali  Pasha),  Damascus 396 

A  Khan  in  Damascus 403 

[xii] 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Fachtg  Page 
(i)  Syrian  Tile  of  the  XVIIIth  Century,  from  a  Damascus 

Mosque,  (2)  Syrian  Tile,  XVIth  or  XVIIth  Century, 

from  a  Damascus  Mosque 408 

Minaret  of  the  Bride,  Damascus 418 

Damascus,  Minaret  of  Jesus 424 

General  View  of  Damascus  in  Early  Spring  ....  428 
Traditional  Site  where  St.  Paul  was  let  down  in  a  Basket, 

Damascus 432 

Domes  of  Damascus 438 

The    Moslem    Cemetery    and    View    of    Mount    Hermon, 

Damascus 442 

The  Midan   (Maidan),  Damascus 446 

Near  the  Midan  (Maidan),  Damascus 450 

LINE  DRAWINGS 

Page 
Hezekiah's  Pool 303 

Tower  Antonia,  Jerusalem 339 

Dome  of  the  Rock,  Interior 353 

Summier  Pulpit,  Haram  Area 363 

The  following  illustrations  have  been  reproduced  by  the  courtesy  of  their 
owners: 

Tooloon  Mosque;  In  a  Cairene  Street;  A  Street  Scene,  Cairo;  The 
Mosque  E!  Ghoree,  Cairo;  and  Door  of  a  Mosque,  Cairo,  by  kind  per- 
mission of  the  owner,  T.  M.  Kitchin,  Esq.:  and  the  Sentinel  of  the  Nile, 
by  kind  permission  of  the  owner,  M.  le  Vicomte  R.  d'Humicres. 

Errata.  The  titles  of  the  two  plates  "  Morning  in  Jerusalem:  The  Dome 
of  the  Rock  on  the  Shaded  Side,"  and  "  Minaret  of  Ibrahim  Ayha's  Mosque  " 
are  incorrectly  given  on  the  plates  themselves  as  "Morning  in  Jerusalem: 
the  Mosque  of  Omar  on  the  Shaded  Side,"  and  "  Mosques  in  the  Sharia 
Bab-el-Wazis."  Where  the  phonetic  spelling  of  other  titles  differs  in  text 
and  illustrations,  the  alternative  titles  are  given  in  brackets  in  the  list  of 
illustrations  and  on  the  tissues. 

[  xiii  ] 


CAIRO    BEFORE    THE    FATIMIDES 

XF  modern  Egypt  is  a  doubly  dependent 
country,  tributary  to  one  empire,  and 
protected  by  another,  a  few  centuries  ago 
it  claimed  to  be  not  only  independent  but 
imperial.  Its  capital,  Cairo,  was  founded  when  the 
power  of  Baghdad  was  already  declining,  and  for  y 
two  centuries  it  maintained  a  Caliph  who  contested 
with  his  Eastern  rival  the  possession  of  Syria,  Pales- 
tine and  Arabia.  And  when  in  the  thi^rteenih  cen- 
tury the  Mongol  storm  wrecked  the  great  metropolis 
of  Islam  on  the  Tigris,  it  was  at  Caijro  that  sovereigns 
arose  capable  of  rebuilding  an  Islamic  empire,  and 
repelling  the  Mongols  beyond  the  Euphrates.  For 
Jwo  and  jLhalf  Qenturies  Cairo  remained  the  capital 
of  western  Islam,  and  the  seat  of  the  most  powerful 
Mohammedan  state,  sending  out  governors  to  many 
provinces,  and  recognised  as  suzerain  even  where  it 
did  not  appoint  the  ruler:  being  itself  the  laboratory 
of  a  political  experiment  perhaps  never  tried  else- 
where. Its  monarchs  bore  the  title  S?ave  (Mame^-  K 
luke^ ,  not  in  mock  humility  like  the  Servus  servorum 
Dei,  but  in  the  plain  and  literal  sense  of  the  term. 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

The  occupant  of  the  throne  was  ordinarily  a  Turk, 
Circassian  or  Greek,  who  had  been  purchased  in  the 
market,  and  then  climbed  step  by  step,  or  at  times  by 
leaps  and  bounds,  a  ladder  of  honours  at  the  top  of 
which  was  the  sultan's  throne.  A  slave  with  slaves 
for  ministers  constituted  the  court,  and  men  of  the 
same  origin  officered  the  army.  The  talents  which 
had  raised  the  first  sovereign  to  the  first  place  were 
rarely,  if  ever,  handed  on  to  his  offspring;  the  natural 

J/^heir  to  the  throne  could  seldom  maintain  himself  on 
it  for  more  than  a  fewjnonths  or  years.  To  have 
passed  through  the  slave-dealer's  hands  seemed  to  be 
a  necessary  qualification  for  royalty. 

In  the  country  which  gave  them  their  title  these 
rulers  housed  as  strangers.  To  its  religion  they  in- 
deed conformed,  but  with  its  language  they  were 
usually  unfamiliar.  The  life  of  the  nation  was 
affected  by  their  justice  or  injustice,  and  the  wisdom 
or  unwisdom  of  their  policy,  internal  and  external; 

V  but  in  the  nation  they  tQok  no^root.  Hence  one  battle 
displaced  them  for  the  Ottomans,  just  as  one  battle 
in  our  day  put  the  country  under  the  power  of  Great 
Britain. 

Cairo  then  eclipsed  Baghdad,  to  be  eclipsed  after 
two-and-a-half  centuries  by  Constantinople;  but  to 
the  dynasty  under  which  it  reached  the  zenith  of  its 

y  fjme  and  power  it  did  not  owe  its  foundation.  That 
took  place  in  the  tenth  century,  A.  D.,  when  an  army 
was  sent  to  invade  Egypt  by  the  descendant  of  a  suc- 
cessful adventurer,  who,  claiming  to  be  of  the 
Prophet  Mohammed's  line,  had  founded  a  dynasty 

[2]        . 


CAIRO  BEFORE  THE  FATIMIDES 

in  North  Africa.  The  place  where  this  army  had 
encamped,  after  capturing  the  older  metropolis,  was 
chosen  to  be  the  site  of  the  new  one.  And  it  was 
V^  called  Victoria  (Kahirah)  in  commemoration  of  the 
conquest  already  achieved,  and  as  an  augury  of  others 
to  be  won. 

Those  who  found  cities  to  inaugurate  new  dynasties 
ordinarily  keep  near  the  beaten  track.  Cairo  is  but 
two  miles  to  the  north  of  Fostat,  which  had  been  the 
capital  of  the  country  from  the  time  of  the  Moham- 
medan conquest.  Its  name  is  the  Latin  word  Fos- 
satum  "  an  entrenchment " — and  it  was  the  camp  of 
the  conquering  army  which,  under  Amr,  son  of  al-As, 
had  wrested  Egypt  from  the  Byzantine  empire,  and 
which  was  made  the  seat  of  government  because  the 
Caliph  of  the  time  would  have  no  water  between  his 
capital,  Medinah,  and  any  Islamic  city.  This  is  why 
the  capital  of  Greek  and  Roman  times,  Alexandria, 
lost  its  pre-eminence.  Fostat  itself  was  not  far  from 
the  remains  of  the  ancient  Memphis,  and  a  city  called 
Babylon,  supposed  to  date  from  Persian  times. 

For  some  time  the  new  city  kept  growing  by  the 
side  of  the  old  city  without  the  latter  losing  much  of 
its  importance  or  its  populousness,  of  which  fabulous 
accounts  are  given  by  persons  professing  to  be  eye- 
witnesses. At  one  time  it  was  supposed  to  contain 
36,000  mosques  and  1270  public  baths.  A  descrip- 
tion of  the  fourteenth  century,  when  it  had  long  been 
on  the  decline,  still  gives  it  480  small  and  14  large 
mosques,  70  public  baths  and  30  Christian  churches 
or  monasteries.     Fostat  was  celebrated  not  only  for 

[5] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

its  size,  its  populousness  and  the  wealth  of  its  stores, 
but  also  for  the  foulness  of  its  air — for  the  mountains 
screened  it  from  the  fresh  breezes  of  the  desert — and 
the  carelessness  of  its  inhabitants  with  regard  to  the 
most  elementary  precautions  of  cleanliness.  Dead 
animals  were  flung  into  the  streets  and  left  there;  the 
gutters  discharged  into  the  same  Nile  whence  water 
for  drinking  was  raised  in  myriads  of  buckets.  The 
cause,  however,  of  the  eventual  desolation  of  Fostat 
was  not  its  unhealthiness,  but  the  act  of  a  ruler  of 
Egypt.  Shawar,  nominally  vizier  but  really  sov- 
ereign, in  the  year  1163  having  to  defend  the  coun- 
try at  once  against  the  Franks  and  against  a  rival 
from  Syria,  despaired  of  saving  the  double  city;  so  he 
committed  the  older  capital  to  the  flames.  Twenty 
thousand  bottles  of  naphtha  and  ten  thousand  lighted 
torches  were  distributed  by  his  orders  in  Fostat, 
whence  all  the  population  had  been  cleared,  to  be 
harboured  in  the  mosques,  baths,  and  wherever  else 
there  was  space  in  Cairo.  For  fifty  days  the  ancient 
city  blazed;  when  at  last  the  flames  were  extin- 
guished, all  that  remained  of  the  capital  of  the  first 
Moslem  conqueror  of  Egypt  was  a  pile  of  ashes. 

The  history  of  Cairo  falls  into  five  main  periods: 
the  Fatimide,  the  Ayyubid,  the  Mameluke,  the  Turk- 
ish, and  the  Khedivial.  The  Fa^imicL£.s,  though  the 
first  independent  Moslem  dynasty  both  in  fact  and  in 
name  that  governed  Egypt,  had  been  preceded  by 
some  rulers  only  nominally  dependent  on  Baghdad. 
The  first  of  these  was  Ahmad  Ibn  Tulun,  whose 
mosque  still  remains.     The  example  of  governing 

[6] 


CAIRO    BEFORE   THE    FATIMIDES 

Egypt  for  its  own  good  with  the  aid  of  a  foreign  gar- 
rison was  set  by  this  predecessor  of  Mohammed  Ali, 
and  has  been  repeatedly  followed. 

The  materials  for  his  biography  are  fairly  copious, 
and  the  figure  which  emerges  is  like  those  of  many 
Oriental  statesmen — a  combination  of  piety,  benev- 
olence, shrewdness  and  unscrupulousness.  His 
father,  Tulyn,  was  a  Turk,  who  had  been  sent  by  the 
governor  of  Bokhara  in  the  tribute  to  Baghdad,  to 
the  Caliph  Mamun,  son  of  the  famous  Ha,ryn  al- 
Rashijd,  early  in  the  nmth  cen_tury;  for  at  that  time 
part  of  the  tribute  of  those  Eastern  dependencies  was 
paid  in  slaves.  Ere  long  he  was  manumitted,  and 
rose  to  a  post  of  some  importance  at  the  Caliph's 
court,  which  was  beginning  to  depend  on  Turkish 
praetorians.  His  son,  Ahmad,  the  future  ruler  of 
Egypt,  was  born  September  20,  835.  At  the  age  of 
twenty-two,  after  his  father's  deatRfhe  obtained  leave 
to  migrate  to  Tarsus,  a  frontier  city,  exposed  to  at- 
tacks from  the  Byzantines,  on  the  chance  of  seeing 
active  service  and  obtaining  regular  pay.  But  his 
taste  for  theology  was  no  less  keen  than  that  for  the 
profession  of  arms,  and  at  Tarsus  he  found  oppor- 
tunities for  the  prof oundest  _stujy.  At  last,  however, 
an  earnest  summons  from  his  mother  decided  him  to 
return,  and  he  started  for  Samarra,  where  at  the  time 
the  Eastern  Caliph  had  fixed  his  residence.  On  this 
journey  he  got  the  first  chance  of  displaying  his 
military  capacity.  The  caravan,  five  hundred 
strong,  to  which  he  had  attached  himself,  was  convey- 
ing a  great  collection  of  contraband  treasures  from 

[7] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

Constantinople  to  Samarra.  After  passing  Edessa, 
and  having  reached  what  was  supposed  to  be  safe 
ground,  it  was  attacked  by  Arab  banditti,  whom 
Ahmad  succeeded  in  defeating,  thereby  rescuing  the 
Caliph's  treasure  from  their  hands.  This  act  placed 
him  high  in  his  sovereign's  favour.  Ere  long  a 
palace  revolution  led  to  this  sovereign's  deposition, 
and  Ahmad  Ibn  Tulun  accompanied  him  to  exile 
at  Wasit  in  the  capacity  of  guardian,  in  which  he 
conducted  himself  with  modesty  and  gejuleness.  A 
command  from  Samarra  to  dispatch  his  prisoner  was 
disobeyed  by  him;  but  he  made  no  difficulty  about 
handing  his  former  sovereign  over  to  another 
executioner. 

In  the  year  868  Ahmad's  stepfather  was  appointed 
governor  of  Egypt,  and  sent  his  stepson  thither  to 
represent  him.  On  September  15  he  entered  Fostat, 
the  then  capital  of  the  country,  at  the  head  of  an 
army.  His  authority  did  not  stretch  over  the  whole 
land,  and  the  financial  department,  chiefly  connected 
with  the  collection  of  the  tribute  to  be  sent  to  Bagh- 
dad, was  under  another  official,  independent  of  the 
governor  and  inclined  to  thwart  him.  This  finance 
minister,  like  many  of  his  successors,  had  rendered 
himself  unpopular  by  a  variety  of  ingenious  extor- 
tions, and  in  order  to  protect  his  life  had  surrounded 
himself  with  a  bodyguard  of  a  hundred  armed 
pages.  Ahmad  excited  this  man's  suspicion  by  re- 
fusing a  handsome  present  of  money,  and  demanding 
of  him  instead  his  bodyguard,  which  he  was  com- 
pelled to  hand  over.     In  spite  of  the  finance  minis- 

[8] 


CAIRO  BEFORE  THE  FATIMIDES 

ter's  consequent  endeavours  to  blacken  Ahmad's 
character  at  court,  fortune  continued  to  favour  the 
deputy  governor  persistently.  In  869  his  stepfather 
wa.s  executed,  but  the  government  of  Egypt  was  con- 
ferred upon  his  father-in-law,  who  not  only  retained 
Ahmad  in  office,  but  placed  under  him  those  Egyp- 
tian districts  which  had  previously  been  independent 
of  him.  By  the  suppression  of  various  risings  he 
won  such  a  reputation  for  ability  and  loyalty  that 
when  in  872  the  governor  of  Syria  rebelled  against 
the  Caliph  and  appropriated  the  Egyptian  tribute, 
Ahmad  was  summoned  to  Syria  and  authorised  to 
gather  forces  sufficient  to  quell  the  rebellion.  These 
forces  were  not  actually  employed  for  this  purpose, 
but  they  were  not  disbanded,  and  Ahmad  on  his  re- 
turn to  Egypt  ordered  a  new  suburb  north  of  Fostat 
to  be  built  for  their  accommodation.  This  suburb, 
which  covered  a  site  previously  occupied  by  Jewish 
and  Christian  burial  grounds,  was  called  Kata'i,  i 
"  the  fiefs,"  and  was  divided  into  streets  assigned  to 
the  different  classes  of  which  the  army  was  formed; 
its  area  was  about  a  square  mile.  It  has  been  re- 
marked that  each  epoch  in  the  development  of  the 
Moslem  capital  of  Egypt  was  marked  by  the  fresh 
location  of  a  permanent  camp;  and  the  origin  of 
Fostat  and  Kata'i  will  be  reproduced  in  the  cases  of  1 
Cairo  and  its  citadel. 

The  next  years  were  spent  by  Ahmad  in  consoli- 
dating his  power,  and,  by  various  devices,  not  un- 
scrupulous for  an  Oriental,  getting  free  from  his 
enemies.     Agents  were  maintained  by  him  in  Bagh- 

[9] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

dad  to  intercept  communications  from  Egypt  di- 
rected against  himself,  and  summary  punishment 
meted  out  to  those  from  whom  the  communications 
emanated.  By  bribes  wisely  administered  at  court 
he  contrived  that  all  to  whom  the  governorship  of 
Egypt  was  offered  should  decline  it;  and  by  lending 
money  through  agents  on  easy  terms  he  gained  a  hold 
on  many  a  potential  enemy.  The  finance  minister 
who  had  stood  in  his  way  was  after  a  time  induced  to 
resign  his  post,  and  Ahmad,  who  took  it  over,  re- 
leased his  subjects  from  the  onerous  imposts  to  which 
they  had  been  subjected;  an  act  of  piety  for  which 
he  is  supposed  to  have  been  rewarded  by  luck  in  the 
discovery  of  treasures:  but  whether  these  discoveries 
actually  took  place  or  were  fictions  of  Ahmad  himself 
or  his  biographers  is  unknown.  In  876,  owing  to 
exorbitant  demands  made  by  the  Caliph's  brother, 
then  occupied  in  fighting  with  a  pretender  who  had 
raised  the  standard  of  revolt  in  the  marshes  of  the 
Euphrates,  Ahmad  definitely  threw  off  his  allegi- 
ance; an  army  was  equipped  against  him,  but  owing 
to  mutiny  it  never  came  near  the  Egyptian  frontier. 
In  the  following  year  Ahmad  seized  Syria,  and  ad- 
vanced as  far  as  Tarsus,  whence  he  withdrew  after 
establishing  peaceful  relations  with  the  Byzantine 
emperor. 

To    Ahmad    Ibn    Tulun    three    buildings    were 

ascribed,  of  which  only  one  remains  intact.    In  873 

he  founded  the  first  hospital  of  Moslem  Egypt;  its 

^^  site,  in  a  quarter  called  Askar,  southwest  of  the  new 

{quarter  Kata'i,  is  accurately  described  by  the  great 

[10] 


CAIRO   BEFORE   THE    FATIMIDES 

medieval  topographer  of  Cairo,  by  whose  time  it 
was  already  ruined.  According  to  custom,  the  rents 
of  a  number  of  buildings  were  given  it  by  way  of 
endowment.  Patients,  during  their  stay  in  it,  were 
to  be  fed  and  clothed  at  the  expense  of  the  hospital; 
when  by  eating  a  chicken  and  a  roll  one  of  them  had 
given  evidence  of  being  restored  to  health,  his  gar- 
ments and  any  money  that  he  had  brought  were  re- 
turned to  him,  and  he  was  dismissed.  Ahmad  Ibn 
Tulun  was  a  diligent  visitor  at  his  l^ospital  until  a 
practical  joke  played  by  a  lunatic  under  treatment 
there  gave  the  founder  a  distaste  for  further  visits. 

Another  work  ascribed  to  the  same  ruler  is  an 
aqueduct,  by  which  water  raised  at  a  well  on  a  spur 
of  Mount  Mokattam  was  brought  northwards.  The 
aqueduct,  at  its  commencement  not  more  than  six 
metres  high,  gradually  becomes  level  with  the 
ground.  The  ruins  of  this  engineering  work  were 
identified  by  Corbet-Bey  (to  whose  article  in  the 
"  Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society  "  for  1891  we  shall  be 
indebted  for  part  of  the  description  of  Ahmad's 
Mosque),  with  an  aqueduct  known  as  Migret  al- 
Imam,  commencing  opposite  the  village  of  Basatin. 
According  to  this  writer  the  structure  of  the  aqueduct 
confirms  the  legend  which  makes  it  the  work  of  the 
same  architect  who  afterwards  built  the  Mosque,  and 
who,  for  having  allowed  some  fresh  mortar  to  remain 
on  which  one  day  Ahmad's  horse  stumbled,  was  re- 
warded for  his  services  with  five  hundred  blows  and 
imprisonment.  The  immediate  purpose  of  the 
aqueduct  was  to  furnish  water  to  a  mosque  called  the 

[II] 


d 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

%    Mosque  of  the  Feet,  which,  though  renewed  after 

Ahmad's    time,    seems    to    have    disappeared.     It 

served,  however,  for  a  much  larger  community  than 

the  keepers  of  the  Mosque,  and  like  the  rest  of  this 

.ruler's  institutions  was  well  endowed.     The  excel- 

ilence  of  the  construction  of  the  aqueduct  caused  it  to 

Ibe  imitated  afterwards,  it  is  said,  without  success. 

In  1894  ^  small  sum  was  devoted  by  the  Committee 

for  the  Preservation  of  the  Monuments  of  Arab  Art 

to  its  repair. 

More  permanent  than  either  of  these  works  has 
been  the  Mosque  of  Ahmad  Ibn  Tulun,  built  during 
the  years  877-879.  Only  two.  mosques  for  public 
worship  preceded  it  in  Egypt,  if  we  may  believe  the 
chroniclers — one,  the  old  Mosque  of  Amr,  the  con- 
queror of  Egypt,  of  which  the  original  has  quite  dis- 
appeared, though  a  building  is  still  called  by  its 
name;  another,  long  forgotten,  in  the  quarter  called 
Askar,  the  creation  of  which  came  between  that  of 
Fostat  and  Kata'i.  The  people  of  Fostat  are  said 
to  have  complained  that  the  Mosque  of  Amr  was  not 
large  enough  to  hold  all  Ahmad's  black  soldiers  at 
Friday  service;  yet  since  Mohammedan  potentates 
have  ordinarily  endeavoured  to  perpetuate  their 
names  by  the  erection  of  religious  edifices,  this  mo- 
tive is  not  required  to  explain  the  undertaking.  Mr. 
Lane  Poole  has  observed  that  the  older  form  of 
mosque  consisted  of  an  area  enclosed  by  cloisters, 
which  gave  way  to  a  form  less  wasteful  of  space, 
when  ground  became  valuable.  This  was  the  design 
adopted  by  Ahmad  Ibn  Tulun,  but  a  building  of  the 

[12] 


TOOl.OON    MOSOUK.   CAIKll. 


CAIRO  BEFORE  THE  FATIMIDES 

size  contemplated  required  a  vast  number  of  columns, 
such  as  could  only  be  obtained  by  demolishing  exist-  f 
ing  churches  or  oratories,  since  the  supply  to  be  had  } 
from  ancient  and  disused  edifices  had  run  short;  and  ' 
it  was  only  so  that  the  Moslem  builders  supplied 
themselves  with  columns.     The  Coptic  architect — 
if  the  legend  may  be  believed — hearing  in  his  prison 
of  the  ruler's  difficulty,  sent  word  to  the  effect  that  he 
could  build  the  desired  edifice  without  columns,  or 
at  least  with  only  two.     He  could  build  with  piers, 
and  employ  brick,  a  material  better  able  to  resist 
fire  than  marble.     His  offer  was  accepted,  he  was 
released  and  set  to  work. 

The  Mosque  has  been  frequently  represented  and 
described,  perhaps  best  by  Corbet-Bey  in  the  article 
to  which  reference  has  already  been  made.  The 
hard  red  bricks  of  which  it  is  constructed  are  eighteen 
centimetres  long  by  eight  wide,  and  about  four  thick, 
laid  flat,  and  bound  by  layers  of  mortar  from  one- 
and-a-half  to  two  centimetres  thick,  all  covered  with 
several  layers  of  fine  white  plaster.  The  foundations 
are  for  the  most  part  on  the  solid  rock;  the  site  being 
called  the  Hill  of  Yashkur,  named  after  an  Arab  f 
tribe  who  were  settled  there  at  the  time  of  the  con-  { 
quest  of  Egypt,  and  employed  before  Ahmad's  date 
as  a  trial  ground  for  artillery.  Owing  to  the  nature 
of  the  foundation  and  the  solidity  of  the  building 
the  whole  Mosque,  with  slight  exceptions,  has  re- 
sisted the  effects  of  time,  only  one  row  of  piers — the 
front  row  of  the  sanctuary — having  fallen,  in  conse- 
quence of  an  earthquake  on  Sunday,  June  8,  1814. 

[■s] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

The  founder's  desire  that  the  edifice  should  survive 
fire  and  flood  has  therefore  been  fulfilled. 

Besides  the  use  of  piers  instead  of  columns,  the 
building  is  noteworthy  as  exhibiting  the  first  employ- 
ment on  a  large  scale  in  Moslem  architecture  of  the 
pointed  arch,  which  is  said  to  be  specially  character- 
istic of  Coptic  architecture,  and  indeed  to  be  found 
in  all  Coptic  churches  and  monasteries;  the  builder 
of  the  Mosque  had  already  employed  them  in 
the  aqueduct.  The  arches  (according  to  Corbet's 
measurements)  spring  from  a  height  of  4.64  metres 
from  the  ground,  rising  at  the  apex  to  a  perpendicu- 
lar height  of  3.70  metres  from  the  spring;  their 
span  is  4.56  metres,  and  there  is  a  slight  return. 
Above  the  piers  the  space  between  the  arches  is 
pierced  by  a  small  pointed  arch,  rising  to  the  same 
height  as  the  main  arches,  and  indicating  that  the 
architect  was  aware  of  the  mechanical  properties  of 
the  pointed  arch. 

Four  cloisters  then — three  consisting  of  double 
rows  and  one  of  a  fivefold  row  of  piers — surround  a 
square  court,  of  which  the  sides  measure  ninety  and 
ninety-two  metres,  while  the  whole  Mosque  covers 
an  area  of  143  by  119.  On  three  sides  the  whole  is 
enclosed  by  a  surrounding  wall  at  a  distance  of  about 
fifteen  metres  from  the  cloisters.  Various  geometri- 
cal ornaments  in  low  relief  are  worked  in  the  stucco 
both  around  and  above  the  arches,  as  they  appear  in 
the  painting,  which,  however,  represents  not  such 
arches  as  have  been  described,  but  windows  in  the 
wall  of  the  same  type  as  those  which  support  the 

[16] 


CAIRO  BEFORE  THE  FATIMIDES 

roof  of  the  colonnades,  but  springing  from  engaged 
dwarf  columns.  A  line  of  stucco  ornament  of  a 
similar  type  runs  above  the  small  arches  over  the 
colonnades;  the  space  between  this  and  the  roof  of 
sycamore  beams  is  filled  with  wooden  planks,  con- 
taining verses  of  the  Koran  in  Cufic  letters  cut  in 
wood  and  attached  to  the  planking.  Exaggerated 
accounts  make  this  frieze  contain  the  whole  of  the 
Koran;  but  Corbet-Bey's  calculations  show  that  they 
could  never  have  contained  more  than  a  seventeenth 
part  of  the  Moslem  sacred  book. 

Two  features  of  interest  are  the  dome  in  the  centre 
of  the  court  and  the  minaret  on  the  north  side.  The 
central  space  was  originally  occupied  by  a  fountain, 
for  ornament,  not  for  ablution,  a  ceremony  for  which 
the  founder  had  already  made  provision  elsewhere. 
The  fountain  was  in  a  marble  basin,  covered  by  a 
dome  resting  on  ten  marble  columns  and  surmounted 
by  another  resting  on  sixteen.  There  were  thus 
above  the  fountain  two  chambers,  from  each  of  which 
the  Muezzin  could  utter  the  call  to  prayer;  while 
the  roof  had  a  parapet  of  teak  wood,  and  had  on  it 
something  resembling  a  sundial.  The  whole  of  this 
marble  erection  was  destroyed  by  fire  on  Thursday, 
September  7,  892,  nine  years  after  the  founder's 
death,  and  more  than  a  hundred  years  elapsed  before 
it  was  replaced. 

The  original  minaret  begins  as  a  square  tower, 
above  which  there  is  a  round  tower,  each  of  which 
has  an  external  staircase,  broad  enough  for  two 
loaded  camels  to  mount;  to  these,  in  later  times,  two 

[17] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

octagonal  towers  with  internal  staircases,  after  the 
style  of  the  ordinary  minaret,  have  been  added.  In 
explanation  of  this  remarkable  shape  the  Moslems 
tell  a  story  how  Ahmad  Ibn  Tulun,  who  considered 
it  beneath  his  dignity  to  trifle  in  council,  once  by 
accident  played  with  a  roll  of  paper,  and  to  conceal 
his  momentary  lapse  asserted  that  he  was  making  the 
model  after  which  the  minaret  of  his  mosque  should 
be  built.  Other  writers,  however,  state  that  both  the 
Mosque  and  its  minaret  were  copied  from  the  great 
Mosque  of  Samarra,  which  in  Ahmad  Ibn  Tulun's 
time  had  been  the  metropolis  of  the  Caliphate;  and 
though  Samarra  quickly  went  to  ruins  when  the  su- 
premacy of  Baghdad  had  been  restored,  we  hear 
something  of  a  wonderful  minaret  there,  whence  a 
view  of  the  surrounding  country  could  be  obtained. 
Corbet-Bey  imagines  the  form  of  the  minaret  to 
resemble  that  of  Zoroastrian  fire-towers;  and  this 
suggestion  seems  to  account  for  the  occurrence  of  the 
type  at  Samarra,  which  it  was  natural  for  a  pro- 
vincial governor  to  copy.  The  tower  was  at  one  time 
surmounted  by  a  boat,  standing  by  which,  after  the 
completion  of  his  work,  the  Christian  architect  is 
said  to  have  demanded  his  reward,  which  this  time 
was  amply  accorded.  The  same  ornament  continued 
till  May,  1694,  when  it  was  blown  off  in  a  gale,  but  it 
was  afterwards  for  a  time  replaced. 

The  total  cost  of  the  building  is  given  unanimously 
by  our  authorities  as  a  sum  which  works  out  at  about 
£60,000;  and  when  Ahmad's  subjects  doubted 
whether  this  money  had  been  lawfully  obtained,  and 

[.8] 


CAIRO  BEFORE  THE  FATIMIDES 

therefore  whether  the  Mosque  could  safely  be  used 
for  worship,  the  founder  is  said  to  have  silenced  their 
scruples  by  assuring  them  that  it  had  all  been  built 
out  of  treasure  trove — money  almost  miraculously 
supplied  by  Heaven's  favour.  Tales  are  told  of  the 
magnificence  of  the  decoration  and  furniture  pro- 
vided for  the  inaugural  ceremony;  how  it  was  even 
intended  to  encircle  the  Mosque  with  a  line  of 
ambergris,  that  the  worshippers  might  always  have 
a  fragrant  odour  to  delight  their  sense.  The  dedi- 
catory inscription  was  engraved  on  more  than  one 
marble  stele,  and  parts  of  one  of  these  have  recently 
been  rediscovered  and  fixed  to  one  of  the  pillars  of 
the  sanctuary,  opposite  the  mihrab,  or  niche,  marking 
the  direction  of  prayer.     It  runs  as  follows: 

"  In  the  name  of,  etc.  The  Emir  Abu'l-Abbas 
Ahmad  Ibn  Tulun,  client  of  the  Commander  of  the 
Faithful,  whose  might,  honour  and  perfect  favour 
God  prolong  in  this  world  and  the  next,  commanded 
that  this  holy,  happy  Mosque  be  built  for  the  Mos- 
lem community,  out  of  legitimate  and  well-gotten 
wealth  granted  him  by  God.  Desiring  thereby  the 
favour  of  God  and  the  future  world,  and  seeking 
that  which  will  conduce  to  the  glory  of  religion  and 
the  unity  of  the  believers,  and  aspiring  to  build  a 
house  for  God  and  to  pay  His  due  and  to  read  His 
Book,  and  to  make  perpetual  mention  of  Him;  since 
God  Almighty  says:  In  houses  which  God  has  per- 
mitted to  be  raised,  wherein  His  name  is  mentioned, 
and  wherein  praise  is  rendered  unto  Him  morning 

[■9] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

and  evening  by  men  that  are  distracted  neither  by 
merchandise  nor  by  selling  from  making  mention  of 
God,  reciting  prayer  and  giving  alms,  fearing  a  day 
wherein  the  hearts  and  eyes  shall  be  troubled,  that 
God  may  reward  them  for  the  good  that  they  have 
wrought,  and  may  give  them  yet  more  out  of  His 
bounty.  And  God  bestows  on  whom  He  will  with- 
out reckoning.  In  the  month  Ramadan  of  the  year 
265.  Exalt  thy  Lord,  the  Lord  of  might,  over  that 
which  they  ascribe  to  Him.  And  peace  be  on  the 
messengers  and  praise  unto  God  the  Lord  of  the 
worlds.  O  God,  he  gracious  unto  Mohammed,  and 
Mohammed's  family,  and  bless  Mohammed  and  his 
family  even  according  to  the  best  of  Thy  favour  and 
grace  and  blessing  upon  Abraham  and  his  family. 
Verily  Thou  art  glorious  and  to  be  praised." 

Of  the  history  of  the  Mosque  after  Ahmad's  time 
some  notices  are  preserved.  His  suburb  Kata'i, 
which  contained  not  only  his  Mosque  but  also  his 
vast  palace  and  parade  ground,  was  burned  in  905 ; 
and  as  the  surrounding  locality  became  more  and 
more  deserted,  the  Mosque  itself  suffered  from 
neglect.  The  second  of  the  Fatimide  Caliphs  is  said 
to  have  replaced  the  fountain,  which,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  burned  soon  after  its  erection;  but  the 
desolation  of  the  region  reached  its  climax  during 
the  long  reign  of  the  Fatimide  Mustansir,  and  the 
Mosque  came  to  be  used  as  a  resting-place  for  Moor- 
ish caravans  on  their  way  to  Mecca,  who  stabled  their 
camels  in  the  cloisters.     Its  use  as  a  hostel  was  coun- 

[20] 


IN   A   CAIRENE   STREET. 


CAIRO  BEFORE  THE  FATIMIDES 

tenanced  by  the  Egyptian  rulers  of  the  tAvelfth  cen- 
tury, who  even  provided  food  for  those  who  made  it 
their  resting-place;  such  persons  were  also  declared 
free  from  the  ordinary  tribunals,  and  told  to  appoint 
a  judge  of  their  own  to  settle  any  quarrels  that  might 
arise. 

Systematic  restoration  was  effected  by  the  Mame- 
luke Sultan  Lajin,  who,  after  murdering  his  master 
in  the  year  1294,  took  refuge  in  the  then  desolate 
Mosque,  and  there  vowed  that,  if  he  escaped  his  pur- 
suers and  eventually  came  to  power,  he  would  restore 
it.  Two  years  later,  being  raised  to  the  throne  of 
Egypt,  he  was  in  a  position  to  fulfil  his  promise;  to 
which  pious  object  he  devoted  a  sum  of  about  ten 
thousand  pounds.  He  rebuilt  the  fountain  in  the 
centre  of  the  court,  turning  it  into  a  lavatory  for  the 
ceremonial  ablution,  and  his  building  still  remains; 
he  provided  a  handsome  mimbar  or  pulpit,  of  which 
some  panels  have  found  their  way  into  the  South 
Kensington  Museum;  but  the  inscription  which  re- 
cords his  munificence  is  still  there.  He  repaved  the 
colonnades  and  restored  the  plastering  of  the  walls. 
He  also  provided  the  Mosque  with  endowments 
sufficient  to  support  a  variety  of  officials,  including 
professors  of  the  chief  Moslem  sciences,  and  a  school 
for  children.  Shortly  after  his  time,  early  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  the  two  minarets  on  the  south 
side  were  built;  and  in  1370  the  north  colonnade 
was  rebuilt,  and  perhaps  the  arches  which  connect 
the  minaret  which  has  been  described  with  the 
Mosque  were  constructed. 

[23] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

Under  the  dominion  of  the  Turks  the  Mosque  was 
again  allowed  to  fall  into  neglect,  and  became  a  fac- 
tory for  the  production  of  woollen  goods;  while  in 
the  nineteenth  century  it  became  a  poorhouse  for  the 
aged  and  infirm,  the  arcades  being  built  up  and 
turned  into  a  series  of  cells,  and  the  interior  profaned 
and  desecrated  in  every  possible  way.  The  poor- 
house  was  closed  in  1877,  and  in  1890  the  Committee 
for  the  Preservation  of  the  Monuments  of  Arab  Art 
succeeded  in  removing  some  traces  of  the  injuries 
which  the  edifice  had  sustained,  and  it  has  ever  since 
remained  under  their  care. 

The  period  between  the  death  of  Ahmad  Ibn 
Tulun  in  884  to  the  foundation  of  Cairo  in  969  was 
in  the  highest  degree  eventful,  but  the  events  which 
it  contained  were  of  little  consequence  for  the  subject 
of  this  book.  The  last  days  of  Ahmad  were  embit- 
tered by  the  rebellion  of  one  of  his  sons,  who,  being 
caught  and  imprisoned,  was  put  to  death  shortly  after 
the  accession  of  another  son,  Khumaruyah,  who 
reigned  for  thirteen  years.  He  showed  great  com- 
petence both  as  a  diplomatist  and  as  a  soldier;  he  re- 
stored friendly  relations  between  the  courts  of  Egypt 
and  Baghdad,  and  received  in  fief  from  the  Caliph 
for  the  period  of  thirty  years  a  vast  empire  stretching 
from  Barca  to  the  Tigris.  He  was,  however,  more 
famous  for  his  magnificence  than  for  his  statesman- 
ship or  his  military  skill.  Wonderful  tales  are  told 
of  his  palaces,  his  gardens  and  his  menageries;  of 
walls  frescoed  at  his  order  with  pictures  of  the  ladies 
in  his  harem,  with  crowns  on  their  heads;  of  trees 

[24] 


CAIRO    BEFORE   THE    FATLMIDES 

set  in  silver,  and  exotics  brought  to  Egypt  from  all 
parts;  of  a  pond  of  mercury  whereon  was  placed  a 
bed  of  air-cushions,  secured  with  silk  and  silver^  that 
its  perpetual  rocking  might  give  him  the  sleep  which 
his  physicians  could  not  procure  for  him  save  by  dis- 
tasteful remedies ;  of  the  tame  lion  that  guarded  him 
sleeping;  and  of  the  wealth  of  Egypt  expended  on  the 
dowry  of  his  daughter,  sent  to  Baghdad  to  wed  the 
Caliph.  The  pond  of  mercury  is  apparently  no 
fiction,  since  it  is  recorded  that  after  his  day  men 
found  the  liquid  metal  all  about  the  site  where  it  had 
stood. 

In  896  Khumaruyah  was  assassinated,  it  is  said,  in 
consequence  of  some  indulgence;  and  his  sons  and 
other  successors  of  his  family  were  quite  incapable  of 
managing  great  afifairs.  Nine  years  after  his  death 
Egypt  was  conquered  by  a  force  sent  from  Baghdad, 
and  the  surviving  members  of  the  line  of  Ahmad  Ibn 
Tulun  were  carried  captive  to  the  metropolis  on  the 
Tigris.  Such  parts  of  Kata'i  as  remained  after  the 
fire  had  only  the  status  of  an  annex  to  Fostat.  Once 
more  the  country  was  governed  by  a  viceroy  sent 
from  Baghdad,  with  a  finance  minister  equal  to  him 
in  authority. 

The  weakness  of  the  Caliphate  prevented  this  ar- 
rangement from  working  as  it  had  worked  in  earlier 
times.  Another  Turk  from  Farghanah,  similar  in  a 
variety  of  ways  to  Ahmad  Ibn  Tulun,  utilised  the 
favour  of  a  vizier  with  whom  he  had  contracted  an 
alliance  to  obtain  by  fraud  an  appointment  to  the 
governorship  of  Egypt.    In  August,  935,  this  person 

[25] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

entered  Egypt  as  governor,  having  defeated  other 
aspirants  to  the  office;  and  shortly  afterwards  he  ob- 
tained permission  from  headquarters  to  assume  the 
title  Ikhshid,  which  in  his  native  country  stood  for 
^'king";  somewhat  as  in  the  nineteenth  century  the 
Egyptian  viceroy  got  from  his  Turkish  suzerain  the 
right  to  style  himself  Khedive.  An  enterprising 
chieftain  deprived  the  Ikhshid  of  the  provinces  of 
Syria  and  Palestine  by  force  of  arms;  and  his  being 
confirmed  in  their  possession  by  the  Caliph  provoked 
such  resentment  in  the  mind  of  the  Ikhshid  that  he 
bethought  him  of  abandoning  the  Prophet's  succes- 
sor on  the  Tigris,  and  bestowing  his  homage  on  the 
pretender  who  was  founding  an  empire  in  Western 
Islam. 

The  Ikhshidi  dynasty  was  of  even  shorter  duration 
than  that  of  Ahmad  Ibn  Tulun,  and  left  in  Egypt 
even  less  to  perpetuate  its  name.  Its  founder  was 
charged  by  his  contemporaries  with  avarice  and 
cowardice,  neither  of  them  a  quality  which  helps  to 
secure  immortality. 

The  system  of  slave  rule,  which,  as  has  been  seen, 
gave  Egypt  its  best  days,  was  anticipated  in  the  inter- 
val between  the  death  of  the  Ikhshid  and  the  acces- 
sion of  the  Fatimides.  Of  two  negroes  brought  from 
the  Sudan  to  the  Egyptian  market  one  aspired  to  em- 
ployment in  a  cook  shop,  that  he  might  never  want 
food;  the  other  aspired  to  become  ruler  of  the  coun- 
try, and  each  obtained  his  wish.  Purchased  for  a 
small  sum,  and  passing  through  the  lowest  stages  of 
misery  and  degradation,  the  latter  rose  finally  by 

[26] 


CAIRO    BEFORE   THE    FATIMIDES 

force  of  character  to  be  the  Ikhshid's  first  minister 
and  general  of  his  forces;  and  on  his  master's  death 
he  contrived  to  keep  the  heirs  in  a  state  of  tutelage 
to  himself,  and  afterwards  to  seat  himself  on  their 
throne;  displaying  throughout  capacity  for  the  man- 
agement of  great  affairs.  Kafur,  "  Camphor," 
whose  name  of  itself  indicated  the  servile  condition 
of  its  owner,  was  not  only  master  of  Egypt,  Syria 
and  Arabia,  but  in  one  respect  was  the  most  fortunate 
of  all  Oriental  sovereigns.  He  obtained  as  his  en- 
comiast the  most  famous  of  Arabic  poets,  known  as 
al-Mutanabbi  "  the  Prophetaster,"  at  a  time  when 
the  poet's  powers  were  at  their  ripest;  and  although 
in  consequence  of  a  dispute  these  brilliant  panegyrics 
were  speedily  followed  by  no  less  brilliant  and  scath- 
ing satires,  the  portrait  of  Kafur  that  results  is  more 
complete  and  more  familiar  than  that  provided  by 
the  paid  eulogiser  of  any  other  Sultan. 

It  might  be  difficult  to  point  out  in  Cairo  any  relic 
of  the  Ikhshidi  period,  though  the  idea  of  expanding 
Fostat  towards  the  north  appears  to  have  found  sup- 
port while  it  lasted.  Kafur  laid  out  a  vast  park  on 
the  eastern  bank  of  the  Great  Canal,  containing  a 
palace  which  formed  his  favourite  residence.  After- 
wards, when  Cairo  was  built,  this  park  formed  the 
garden  of  the  Lesser  Palace,  constructed  by  the  sec- 
ond of  the  Fatimide  Sultans.  And  the  Tibri  Zawi- 
yah,  restored  by  Shafak  Nur,  mother  of  the  late 
Khedive  Tewfik,  is  on  the  site  of  a  small  mosque 
built  by  one  of  Kafur's  ministers. 

[29] 


THE    FATIMIDE    PERIOD 

HE  rights  of  members  of  the  Prophet's 
house  appeal  to  all  Moslems,  and  there 
have  always  been  multitudes  among  them 
holding  that  the  succession  should  have 
fallen  to  the  sons  of  his  daughter  rather' than  to  the 
descendants  of  his  uncle.  At  the  time  when  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  latter  in  Baghdad  had  become 
puppets  of  foreign  commanders,  and  the  hold  of 
Baghdad  on  Egypt  as  well  as  other  provinces  had 
become  so  lax  as  almost  to  be  non-existent,  a  pretender 
to  the  succession  through  the  Prophet's  daughter  had 
founded  a  kingdom  in  North  Africa,  which  by  con- 
quest was  steadily  approaching  the  Egyptian  fron- 
tier. To  the  Moslem  population  of  Egypt  allegiance 
to  such  a  monarch  seemed  far  less  humiliating  than 
to  such  foreigners  and  slaves  as  had  ruled  over  them 
since  the  fall  of  the  Tulunids.  During  the  disorders 
that  broke  out  after  the  death  of  Kafur,  a  Jew  who 
had  been  employed  in  some  government  office,  and 
received  rough  treatment  from  one  of  Kafur's 
ephemeral  successors,  betook  him  to  the  capital  of 
the  North  African  dynasty,  a  place  called  Mahdiy- 
yah  (or  city  of  the  Mahdi),  and  informed  the  pro- 

[30] 


THE    FATIMIDE    PERIOD 

fessed  descendant  of  Ali  and  Fatimah  there  reigning 
that  the  time  was  ripe  for  the  occupation  of  Egypt. 
On  February  6,  969,  an  army  was  despatched  under 
one  Jauhar,  said  to  be  a  Greek  by  origin,  who  by  July 
9  of  the  same  year  had  crushed  all  resistance,  and 
takeh  possession  of  the  old  capital,  Fostat.  A  formal 
procession  of  the  troops  was  made  on  that  day 
through  the  city,  and  they  were  quartered  for  the 
night  on  the  plain  to  the  north,  where  on  the  follow- 
ing night  the  lines  of  the  new  city  were  drawn.  The 
troops,  for  whom  the  new  city  was  to  provide  a  resi- 
dence, numbered  a  hundred  thousand  mounted  men. 
The  lines  of  the  new  city  were  determined  by  the 
^anal,  called  the  Canal  of  the  Commander  of  the 
Faithful,  which  ran  from  Fostat  towards  the  south- 
east, discharging  at  the  port  of  Kulzum  or  Klysma. 
That  is  the  dry  canal  (now  the  route  of  a  tram-line) 
which  bisects^  Cairo  from  south  to  north,  the  city 
having  afterwards  expanded  on  its  western  side,  in 
the  direction  of  the  Nile,  whose  bed  has  since  re- 
ceded considerably  in  the  same  direction.  For  many 
centuries  the  view  over  this  canal  was  the  favourite 
sight  in  Cairo,  and  wealthy  persons  used  to  build 
their  houses  where  they  could  enjoy  it.  The  eastern 
boundary  was  also  a  canal,  called  the  canal  of  the 
Red  Mountain;  it  must  have  silted  up  at  no  great 
length  of  time  after  the  building  of  Cairo,  and  no 
trace  of  it  exists.  The  southern  boundary  of  the 
new  city  was  Mount  Mokattam,  with  the  two  ruined 
suburbs  of  Fostat  called  al-Askar  and  al-Kata'i. 
There  was  also  a  canal  on  this  side,  supposed  to  have 

[31] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

been  dug  by  the  first  Moslem  conqueror  of  Egypt. 
To  the  north  there  was  no  limit  quite  so  definite,  but 
the  line  was  drawn  well  to  the  south  of  Ain  Shams, 
and  a  canal  was  afterwards  dug  on  this  side  also,  so 
that  the  new  city  had  moats  on  all  four  sides. 

The  lines  drawn  by  Jauhar  for  the  walls  of  the  new 
city  were  found  next  morning  to  contain  certain 
obliquities,  but  his  belief  in  the  auspiciousness  of  the 
moment  chosen  for  their  drawing  prevented  his  after- 
wards rectifying  them.  These  obliquities  were  in 
any  case  very  slight;  the  walls  when  built  enclosed  a 
city  that  was  practically  foursquare,  and  nearly  true 
to  the  cardinal  points.  We  shall  try  under  the  guid- 
ance of  Casanova  to  trace  the  remains  of  the  ancient 
walls  and  gates. 

The  southern  wall  that  looked  towards  Fostat  was 
pierced  by  the  double  gate  called  Zuwailah  about 
the  middle,  and  at  the  southwestern  angle  by  the  gate 
called  Faraj  (deliverance).  On  the  west  side  there 
was  a  gate  called  Sa'adat,  after  one  of  the  Fatimide 
generals  who  had  entered  the  city  thereby.  Two  other 
gates  were  afterwards  cut  in  this  wall:  one  called 
Khukhah  (the  wicket)  near  the  bridge  by  which  the 
Mouski  passes  over  the  canal,  and  another  the  Gate 
of  the  Bridge  by  which  the  canal  was  crossed  at  an 
earlier  time.  On  the  north  side  there  were  two 
gates,  known  as  Bab  al-Nasr  and  Bab  al-Futuh  (both 
meaning  Gates  of  Victory).  On  the  east  side  there 
were  also  two  called  Barkiyyah  and  Mahruk  re- 
spectively: the  second  of  these  names  belongs  to  a 
later  time. 

[32] 


THE   FATIMIDE   PERIOD 

Rather  more  than  a  hundred  years  later — in  1087 
A.  D. — it  was  found  necessary  to  rebuild  the  walls, 
this  time  with  burned  bricks,  the  original  walls  hav- 
ing probably  been  of  mud.  This  was  done  by  the 
order  of  the  Fatimide  Caliph  Mustansir,  and  under 
the  direction  of  his  minister  Badr  al-Jamali,  com- 
monly called  Emiral-Juyush  (Prince  of  the  Armies) . 
The  lines  of  Jauhar's  wall  were  closely  followed,  ex- 
cept that  the  northern  wall  was  extended  so  as  to 
include  the  Mosque  of  Hakim,  which  had  been  built 
outside  the  old  wall.  This  involved  the  displacing 
of  the  Nasr  and  Futuh  Gates.  The  southern  wall 
was  also  displaced  so  that  the  Zuwailah  Gate  was 
given  its  present  position.  These  three  gates  were, 
it  is  said,  built  by  three  brothers  from  Edessa,  prob- 
ably Syrian  Christians.  An  inscription  which  at  one 
time  stood  on  the  Bab  Zuwailah  stated  that  it  had 
been  erected  in  the  year  corresponding  to  1091, 
whereas  the  Bab  al-Nasr  had  been  completed  four 
years  earlier.  The  former  of  these  two  gates  was 
regarded  as  a  masterpiece,  unrivalled  in  the  world 
for  the  size  of  its  doors  and  the  massiveness  of  the 
towers  which  defended  it.  A  legend  made  the  leaves 
revolve  on  pivots  stuck  in  disks  of  glass.  When  the 
Muayyad  Mosque  was  built  in  1416,  these  towers 
were  employed  as  the  foundation  of  the  minarets,  and 
much  of  the  original  construction  on  the  side  of  the 
Mosque  was  reduced.  The  increase  of  traffic  with 
the  older  town  led  to  the  wall  at  the  side  being 
demolished.  The  Committee  has  done  much  work 
upon  the  remains  of  the  Gate,  and  in  1900  brought  to 

[33] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

light  part  of  a  Cufic  inscription,  which  is,  however, 
purely  religious  in  character  and  contains  neither  the 
name  of  the  founder  nor  the  date. 

Under  the  vault  of  the  arch  there  used  to  be  two 
chambers  of  which  that  to  the  west  is  still  in  existence 
and  communicates  with  the  Muayyad  Mosque. 
These  chambers  were  used  by  the  Egyptian  sov- 
ereigns to  watch  various  spectacles  of  which  this 
part  of  the  city  formed  the  theatre,  especially  the 
starting  and  return  of  the  Sacred  Carpet  {mahmil). 
Owing  to  the  populousness  of  the  region  the  gate  was 
used  for  a  variety  of  purposes  which  demanded  pub- 
licity, notably  the  execution  of  criminals.  Proces- 
sions regularly  had  their  route  between  the  Futuh 
and  Zuwailah  Gates. 

Eighty  years  later  the  great  Saladin  finding  the 
wall  of  Jauhar  in  ruins  resolved  to  repair  it.  His 
idea  was  to  build  a  single  wall,  which,  starting  from 
the  Nile,  should  enclose  both  Fostat  and  Cairo  and 
return  to  the  Nile.  The  commencement  of  the  wall, 
as  planned  by  the  great  Sultan,  was  from  Maks  or 
Maksim  (a  name  derived  probably  from  a  Roman 
named  Maximus),  the  port  of  Cairo  on  the  Nile, 
where  Hakim  built  a  Mosque,  called  afterwards  the 
Mosque  of  the  Gate  of  the  Nile,  or  of  the  Sons  of 
Anan.  From  this  point  the  new  wall  went  directly 
to  the  Great  Canal.  West  of  the  Canal  it  was  pierced 
by  the  Bab  Sha'ri5^ah,  still  marked  on  the  plans, 
named,  it  is  said,  after  a  Berber  tribe  encamped  in 
the  neighbourhood.  Traces  of  the  wall  of  Saladin 
have  been  discovered  by  Casanova  at  various  other 

[34] 


THE    FATIMIDE    PERIOD 

points.  From  the  northeast  corner  of  the  old  wall 
the  northern  wall  was  continued  for  some  hundreds 
of  metres,  as  far  as  a  point  called  Burj  Zafar  (Tower 
of  Victory),  a  name  apparently  chosen  to  accord 
with  those  of  the  gates  already  piercing  the  north 
wall;  the  extended  line  after  a  space  went  back  to 
resume  the  line  of  the  older  wall,  slightly  north  of 
the  Bab  al-Barkiyyah.  That  gate  was,  however, 
shifted  to  the  east,  as  was  also  the  case  with  the  gate 
called  Bab  Mahruk,  while  two  new  gates  were  con- 
structed called  the  New  Gate  and  the  Vizier's  Gate. 
The  southern  wall,  running  from  the  Citadel  to  the 
Nile,  so  as  to  enclose  the  Mosque  of  Amr,  had  four 
gates,  called  respectively  after  the  Cemetery,  Safa, 
Old  Cairo  and  the  Bridge. 

Of  the  gates  that  have  been  mentioned,  three,  Zu- 
wailah  (now  usually  called  Mutwalli),  Futuh, 
and  Nasr  are  fairly  well  preserved;  the  remainder 
no  longer  exist,  but  their  names  are  preserved  in  the 
plans,  and  streets  or  spaces  are  called  after  them. 
The  gate  which  has  been  mentioned  above  with  the 
name  Mahruk  (the  Burned)  is  said  to  have  been 
previously  called  the  Forage-dealers'  and  to  have 
changed  its  name  owing  to  the  following  circum- 
stance. On  Thursday,  September  27,  1254,  the  Emir 
Aktai,  who  had  been  planning  to  usurp  the  throne  of 
the  reigning  Mameluke  Aibek,  was  treacherously 
seized  by  the  latter  and  assassinated  within  the 
Citadel.  His  followers,  some  seven  hundred  in  num- 
ber, determined  the  following  night  to  leave  Cairo 
and  start  in  the  direction  of  Syria.     Finding  the 

[37] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

Forage-dealers'  Gate  locked,  as  usual  at  night,  they 
set  fire  to  it.  When  the  gate  was  afterwards  replaced 
it  was  known  as  the  Burned  Gate. 

A  relic  of  Jauhar's  work  is  left  in  the  name  Bair 
al-Kasrain,  "  Between  the  two  Palaces,"  sometimes 
given  to  the  Nahhasin  Street.  One  of  the  general's 
first  tasks  was  to  build  a  palace  for  his  master,  and 
the  site  selected  was  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  great 
avenue  which  bisected  the  new  city.  Opposite,  on 
the  other  side  of  the  avenue,  were  the  gardens  of 
Kafur,  also  containing  the  palace  which  that  former 
sovereign  of  Egypt  had  occupied.  The  great  East- 
ern Palace,  as  this  was  called,  to  distinguish  it  from 
the  Western  Palace  built  by  the  second  Fatimide 
Caliph,  was  commenced  the  same  night  as  that  on 
which  the  lines  of  the  walls  were  drawn.  The  vast 
building,  or  series  of  buildings,  was  a  city  in  itself, 
capable  of  containing  30,000  persons.  A  high  wall, 
pierced  with  a  number  of  gates,  whose  names  are  still 
preserved  in  some  local  appellations,  screened  it 
from  the  gaze  of  the  populace;  and  from  a  distance 
it  seemed  comparable  to  a  mountain.  Dissatisfied 
with  this  great  palace,  the  second  of  the  Fatimide 
Caliphs  built  himself  a  smaller  one  opposite.  It  was 
an  open  rectangle,  embracing  a  recreation  ground, 
which  fronted  the  avenue  "  Between  the  two 
Palaces." 

These  palaces,  of  which  M.  Ravaisse  has  endeav- 
oured to  reconstruct  the  general  plan,  were  occupied 
by  the  Fatimide  Caliphs  till  the  fall  of  the  dynasty. 
When    Saladin    resolved    to   put  an   end   to   it,    he 

[38] 


THE   FATIMIDE   PERIOD 

found,  it  is  said,  in  the  great  Eastern  Palace  12,000 
persons,  all  of  them  women,  with  the  sole  exception 
of  the  Caliph  and  his  sons,  and  other  males  of  the 
imperial  family.  It  was  assigned  by  Saladin  to  his 
ministers  to  dwell  in;  and  it  speedily  went  to  rack 
and  ruin.  This  was  due  to  the  building  of  the 
Citadel,  which  not  only  became  the  residence  of  the 
ruler,  but  of  necessity  that  of  the  chief  ministers  as 
well. 

The  troops  brought  by  Jauhar  were  assigned  dif- 
ferent quarters  in  the  new  city,  where  they  proceeded 
to  build.  On  the  western  side  of  the  great  avenue 
there  were  four  quarters  or  Harahs — called  respec- 
tively after  Burjuwan,  the  Emirs,  Jaudar  and  Zu- 
wailah.  Four  other  quarters  lay  to  the  west  of  these, 
and  between  them  and  the  canal;  these  were  called 
Farahiyyah,  Murtahiyyah,  Akrad  (Kurds)  and 
Mahmudiyyah.  These  names  are  mainly  taken  from 
either  detachments  of  the  army  of  Jauhar  or  from 
their  captains.  East  of  the  Avenue  there  were  the 
upper  and  lower  quarter  of  the  Greeks,  to  the  north 
and  south  respectively;  east  of  the  grand  palace  the 
quarters  of  the  chief  general;  south  of  it  the  quarters 
of  the  Dailemites  and  Turks;  northeast  of  it  the 
quarter  called  after  Utuf,  a  black  captain;  west  of 
it  the  Barkiyyah  quarter.  Other  quarters  were  built 
by  less  fortunate  troops  outside  the  walls. 

According  to  the  calculations  of  Ali  Pasha  Mu- 
barak, the  length  of  each  side  of  Jauhar's  city  was 
about  1200  metres,  and  the  area  340  feddans,*  of 
which  70  feddans  were  occupied  by  the  great  palace, 

*4,2oo  spuare  metres. 

[39] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

thirty-five  by  the  garden  of  Kafur,  thirty-five  by  the 
two  parade  grounds,  and  the  remaining  200  by  the 
soldiers'  quarters.  Between  the  western  wall  and  the 
canal  there  was  a  distance  of  thirty  metres.  The  new 
walls  built  by  Emir  al-Juyush  gave  the  city  a  further 
extension  of  sixty  feddans.  The  addition  to  Cairo  of 
the  space  west  of  the  canal  towards  the  Nile  and  to 
the  south  towards  the  city  of  Ahmad  Ibn  Tulun  took 
place  during  the  period  of  the  Mamelukes.  Mean- 
while the  bed  of  the  Nile  has  moved  to  a  distance  of 
something  like  a  mile  and  a  half  west  of  its  ancient 
course.  The  recovered  land  has  gradually  been  built 
over,  and  by  these  repeated  extensions  the  area  of 
Cairo  has  reached  something  like  six  times  that  of 
the  original  city. 

The  early  years  of  the  Fatimide  Caliphs  were  dis- 
turbed by  the  attacks  of  the  Carmathians,  against 
whom,  as  we  have  seen,  Jauhar  found  it  necessary  to 
fortify  Cairo  with  a  series  of  trenches  in  addition  to 
his  wall.  In  origin  the  Carmathians  and  the  Fati- 
mides  appear  to  have  been  the  same,  but  the  sects 
had  become  divided  in  the  course  of  the  century  dur- 
ing which  the  former  had  been  thriving  in  the  West, 
while  the  original  community  had  been  devastating 
Arabia  and  the  Eastern  provinces  of  the  Caliphate. 
Both  followed  a  system  of  mysticism,  one  part  of 
which  was  to  assign  rights,  more  or  less  approximat- 
ing to  the  divine,  to  the  family  of  Ali,  the  Prophet's 
cousin  and  son-in-law;  but  whereas  the  practice  of 
statesmanship  had  reduced  the  fanaticism  of  the 
Fatimides,  their  Eastern  brethren  were  iconoclasts 

[40] 


THE    FATIMIDE    PERIOD 

and  persecutors  of  as  vehement  a  sort  as  ever  arose  in 
Islam.  At  the  period  of  the  Fatimide  conquest  of 
Egypt  the  leader  of  the  Carmathians,  al-Aasam,  had 
his  headquarters  in  al-Ahsa  on  the  Persian  Gulf,  but 
was  in  relations  with  the  Caliph  of  Baghdad,  and 
even  employed  forces  nominally  subject  to  the 
Caliph  in  wresting  from  Egyptian  rule  Damascus  ix 
and  other  Syrian  cities.  The  disturbed  state  of  the 
reign  formerly  held  by  the  Ikhshidis  enabled  the 
Carmathian  leader  to  gain  a  series  of  victories,  till 
in  October,  971,  his  army  was  encamped  at  Ain 
Shams  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  Cairo. 
The  skill  of  the  Fatimide  general  was  now  put  to  a 
greater  test  than  it  had  to  undergo  when  he  was  sent 
to  conquer  Egypt,  but  it  proved  equal  to  the  occasion. 
Sorties  were  organised  by  him  on  November  19  and 
20,  in  the  second  of  which  a  severe  defeat  was  in- 
flicted on  the  Carmathian  leader,  who  was  compelled 
to  retreat  to  al-Ahsa,  finding  that  in  consequence  of 
his  failure  he  was  defeated  by  various  Arab  tribes 
who  had  gladly  joined  his  plundering  expeditions. 
The  land  victory  was  followed  by  one  over  the 
Carmathian  fleet  at  Tinnis,  and  in  Syria,  too,  at- 
tempts were  made  to  shake  off  the  Carmathian  yoke. 
Al-Aasam,  however,  had  no  intention  of  giving  way 
without  another  struggle,  and  the  Fatimide  Caliph, 
whose  arrival  was  hastened  by  the  representations 
made  to  him  by  his  general  concerning  the  Carma- 
thian trouble,  found  himself  a  year  after  his  enthrone- 
ment besieged  in  his  capital,  while  various  Carma- 
thian corps  ravaged  lower  Egypt.     Al-Aasam  was 

[41]  ' 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

again  compelled  to  raise  the  siege,  chiefly  through 
the  timely  administration  by  the  enemy  of  bribes  to 
some  of  his  shifty  allies.  ^ 

Egypt  was  thus  delivered  from  the  Carmathlans; 
but  the  possession  of  Syria  was  not  yet  secured  for 
the  Egyptian  sovereigns.  When  the  first  Caliph 
Muizz  died  at  the  end  of  975,  his  son  and  successor 
Aziz  found  himself  threatened  in  Syria  by  an  enemy 
who  had  succeeded  to  the  inheritance  of  the  Carma- 
thlans. This  was  a  Turk,  Aftakin,  who,  as  com- 
mander of  a  force  of  mercenaries  which  had  been  in 
the  employ  of  the  Eastern  Sultan  and  had  mutinied, 
had  in  the  spring  of  975  become  master  of  Damascus, 
where  by  justice  and  capacity  he  had  made  himself 
popular,  and  presently  found  himself  strong  enough, 
with  the  aid  of  disaffected  Carmathians,  to  endeavour 
to  extend  his  rule  over  all  Syria.  In  July,  976,  Jau- 
har  was  sent  by  the  advice  of  Jacob,  son  of  Killis 
(the  Jew  who  had  originally  summoned  the  Fati- 
mides  to  invade  Egypt) ,  to  deal  with  this  new  enemy, 
and  he  besieged  Damascus  for  two  months.  Aftakin 
was  finally  persuaded  by  the  Damascenes  to  invoke 
the  aid  of  the  Carmathians,  who  were  now  under 
another  chief.  The  result  of  this  alliance  was  that 
Jauhar  had  presently  to  raise  the  siege  of  Damascus, 
and  was  soon  himself  shut  up  in  Askalon  where  his 
army  suffered  great  privations.  Jauhar  in  these  cir- 
cumstances in  some  way  got  to  the  ear  of  Aftakin, 
who,  against  the  judgment  of  his  Carmathian  col- 
league, was  persuaded  to  allow  Jauhar's  army  to  de- 
part without  apparently  having  made  any  conditions 

[42] 


THE    FATIMIDE    PERIOD 

of  peace.  They  were  met  on  their  return  by  a  new- 
army  equipped  by  the  Caliph  Aziz,  who  advanced 
with  them  to  Ramlah,  where  in  the  summer  of  977  a 
fierce  engagement  took  place,  ending  in  the  defeat  of 
Aftakin  and  the  Carmathians,  who  are  said  to  have 
lost  20,000  men.  In  spite  of  this  success,  the  Egyp- 
tian Caliph  was  content  to  stave  off  further  attacks 
by  the  offer  of  a  yearly  tribute.  Aftakin,  who 
through  treachery  was  taken  captive  by  the  Caliph, 
was  treated  honourably  and  even  admitted  to  the 
circle  of  the  Caliph's  advisers:  a  fact  which  is  said  to 
have  so  roused  the  jealousy  of  the  Vizier  Jacob,  son 
of  Killis,  that  he  caused  this  possible  rival  to  be 
poisoned  about  four  years  after  his  capture.  We 
should  gladly  try  to  exonerate  this  capable  proselyte 
from  so  grave  a  charge,  but  his  career  makes  it  im- 
probable that  he  was  troubled  with  more  scruples 
than  Marlowe's  Jew  of  Venice.  Still  he  seems  to 
have  served  his  Caliph  faithfully,  who  found  him 
indispensable,  being  obliged  to  restore  him  to  office 
whenever  he  tried  to  cashier  him,  and  who,  on  his 
death  in  990,  fasted  for  three  days  and  gave  him  the 
most  honourable  interment. 

The  accounts  that  are  handed  down  of  this  person's 
possessions  give  a  vivid  idea  of  the  amount  which  it 
was  possible  for  a  minister  of  state  to  accumulate. 
He  left  jewels,  coined  wealth,  goods  of  various  kinds 
and  estates  valued  at  about  two  million  pounds;  his 
harem,  containing  800  wives,  came  near  rivalling 
Solomon's;  and  there  was  a  dowry  of  about  100,000 
pounds  left  for  his  daughter.     Besides  this  he  had 

[45] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

followed  the  plan  adopted  by  yet  earlier  ministers, 
and  destined  to  influence  the  destinies  of  Egypt  in  the 
future,  of  forming  a  bodyguard,  which  in  his  case 
had  risen  to  the  number  of  4000  Mamelukes;  they 
were  housed  in  barracks  which  formed  a  street  called 
Vizier  Street,  and  even  after  Jacob's  death  were  not 
disbanded. 

The  other  founder  of  the  Fatimide  Empire  In 
Egypt,  Jauhar,  survived  him  rather  more  than  a 
year,  dying  at  the  beginning  of  992.  His  relations 
with  his  master  continued  friendly  to  the  end,  but  his 
ill-success  in  the  Syrian  expedition  appears  to  have 
definitely  tarnished  his  laurels. 

For  several  years  Aziz  was  occupied  with  the 
conquest  of  Syria,  where  the  Hamdanide  Saad  al- 
Daulah,  whose  capital  was  at  Aleppo,  managed  to 
maintain  himself,  and  on  his  death  in  991  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son,  Abu'l-Fada'il.  This  sovereign 
endeavoured  to  obtain  the  help  of  the  Greek  emperor 
against  the  Egyptian  invaders,  and  such  help  was 
readily  given,  since  the  maintenance  of  Antioch  in 
Christian  hands  depended  on  the  possibility  of  play- 
ing off  one  Moslem  power  against  the  other.  Aleppo 
after  a  siege  of  thirteen  months  by  Aziz's  general  was 
set  free  by  the  timely  aid  of  the  Emperor  Basil.  The 
plans,  however,  of  this  Caliph  were  interrupted  by 
his  death  in  the  year  996,  when  his  son  Mansur, 
known  as  Hakim,  was  placed  on  the  throne,  being 
eight  years  of  age. 

The  practice  of  proclaiming  minors  was  destined 
to  be  followed  many  times,  chiefly  during  the  Mame- 

[46] 


THE    FATIMIDE    PERIOD 

luke  dynasties,  when  it  usually  led  to  the  throne  being 
seized  after  a  few  days  or  months  by  an  ambitious 
minister.  Such  a  coup  d'etat  was  suggested  on  this 
occasion  to  the  minister  Burjuwan  the  Slave,  who  had 
been  appointed  regent  by  the  last  Caliph's  dying  dis- 
positions; but  he  did  not  consent  to  carry  it  out.  He 
was,  however,  soon  involved  in  a  struggle  with  his 
colleague,  the  Commander  of  the  Forces,  which 
again  were  divided  into  two  camps  of  Moors  and 
Syrians  including  Turks.  Burjuwan  succeeded  in 
getting  the  upper  hand  and  displacing  his  colleague, 
who  was  presently  assassinated  by  the  Turks. 

Burjuwan  maintained  his  regency  for  about  four 
years,  and  managed  affairs  successfully.  He  recov- 
ered Syria,  pacified  Damascus,  and  after  defeating 
the  Greeks  made  a  truce  with  their  emperor  for  ten 
years.  But  his  protege  Hakim  developed  the  quali- 
ties of  an  eastern  tyrant  at  an  early  age,  and  finding 
the  restraint  of  Burjuwan  intolerable,  intrigued  with 
two  other  ministers,  who  assassinated  him.  Hakim 
was  at  this  time  twelve  years  of  age.  Though  com- 
pelled to  tolerate  another  regent,  as  usual  the  assassin 
of  the  last,  he  required  that  all  petitions  should  be 
addressed  to  himself,  and  that  the  new  regent  should 
make  no  pretensions  to  independence.  Ere  his  thir- 
teenth year  was  at  an  end,  he  began  the  series  of  ex- 
travagant ordinances  and  regulations  which  were 
continued  through  the  whole  of  his  reign  and  have 
won  him  the  title  "  Caligula  of  the  East."  His  de- 
light in  bloodshed  was  utilised  by  his  ministers  for 
the  purpose  of  getting  rid  of  rivals,  but  those  who 

[47] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

gratified  their  resentments  in  this  way  quickly  fell 
victims  in  their  turn.  Thus  Burjuwan's  assassin  sur- 
vived him  little  more  than  three  years. 

As  this  Caliph  began  to  assert  his  independence, 
the  people  of  Egypt  became  subjected  to  as  much 
cruelty  and  purposeless  annoyance  as  can  ever  have 
fallen  to  the  lot  of  any  nation;  though  the  instability 
of  the  tyrant's  purpose  and  the  perpetual  veering  of 
his  inclinations  may  have  done  something  to  relieve 
them.  At  times  he  amused  himself  with  oppressing 
Jews  and  Christians,  at  times  they  were  the  objects 
of  his  favour.  At  times  he  ordered  that  day  should 
be  turned  into  night,  and  vice  versa;  at  times  no  one 
was  to  be  allowed  about  after  dark.  Dumb  animals, 
and  even  plants,  were  often  the  object  of  his  resent- 
ment. 

One  whim  of  Hakim's  cost  the  Christians  many 
churches,  for  at  one  period  he  demanded  that  all 
those  in  Egypt  should  be  demolished,  and  he  ex- 
tended his  iconoclasm  to  the  ancient  and  much 
venerated  Church  of  the  Resurrection  in  Jerusalem. 
Jews  and  Christians  were  compelled  to  adopt  Islam 
under  penalty  of  having  to  carry  heavy  weights  in 
the  form  of  a  calf  or  a  cross.  An  amusement  of  this 
monster  was  the  hacking  of  young  children  to  pieces; 
a  remonstrance  against  which  cruelty  cost  a  general 
who  had  saved  Hakim's  throne  his  life.  Viziers  and 
other  officers  were  honoured,  tortured  or  executed 
according  to  the  Caliph's  caprice. 

In  spite  of  the  character  of  Hakim's  rule  few 
serious  attempts  seem  to  have  been  made  to  rid  Egypt 

[48] 


THE    FATIMIDE    PERIOD 

of  him.  Apparently  the  hatred  between  the  Moor- 
ish and  Syrian  elements  in  his  army  was  so  great  that 
he  could  always  rely  on  one  or  other  of  them  in  the 
event  of  disaffection  spreading.  Nor  does  it  appear 
that  any  opponent  of  tyranny  could  build  on  the  ordi- 
nary resentment  inspired  by  the  Caliph's  acts;  any- 
one who  opposed  him  on  the  ground  of  nearer  descent 
from  the  prophet  could  perhaps  get  together  some 
allies.  Two  attempts  to  substitute  a  new  dynasty  for 
that  of  Hakim  on  this  principle  were  made  by  pre- 
tenders from  Barcah  and  Meccah  respectively;  the 
former  of  these  came  near  succeeding,  but  Hakim 
found  a  general  capable  of  defeating  him.  The 
latter  was  rendered  innocuous  by  administering 
bribes.  The  persons  who  joined  in  these  revolts 
were,  moreover,  not  the  sufferers  from  the  Caliph's 
tyranny,  but  hordes  of  free  Arabs,  whose  fickleness 
ruined  any  cause  that  they  temporarily  took  up.  Nor 
can  we  find  that  Hakim's  cruelties  inspired  much,  if 
any,  horror  in  his  contemporaries,  since  various 
princes  voluntarily  put  themselves  under  his  suze- 
rainty. 

Toward  the  end  of  his  reign  he  was  possessed  of 
the  same  ambition  as  had  formerly  seized  Caligula 
— the  desire  to  be  regarded  as  a  god.  Missionaries 
sprang  up  in  Cairo  who  taught  the  new  doctrine  of 
the  divinity  of  Hakim,  and  demanded  that  it  should 
be  recognised.  This  claim  seemed  at  last  to  rouse 
the  submissive  people  of  Cairo  to  indignation,  and 
several  of  the  missionaries  and  their  adherents  were 
murdered.     Hakim  avenged  himself  by  again  tak- 

[49] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

ing  the  Jews  and  Christians  into  favour,  allowing  the 
forced  converts  to  return  to  their  former  religions, 
and  rebuild  their  churches  and  synagogues;  and  in 
addition,  permitting  his  Sudanese  troops  to  indulge 
in  all  sorts  of  excesses  with  the  Moslem  population. 
At  times  the  other  troops  took  the  side  of  the  popu- 
lace against  the  Sudanese,  and  in  the  course  of  the 
skirmishes    which    ensued    much    destruction    was 

WTOUght. 

The  deliverance  of  the  people  of  Egypt  came  by 
the  hand  of  an  assassin  in  the  year  1021.  All  that 
is  known  is  that  Hakim  rode  out  one  evening  to  the 
Karafa,  or  cemetery,  on  an  ass  with  a  small  escort, 
and  never  returned.  The  ass  was  afterwards  found 
in  a  mutilated  condition,  and  the  tracking  of  foot- 
steps led  to  the  discovery  of  Hakim's  clothes.  The 
assassination  is  ascribed  to  a  sister  of  Hakim's,  who 
was  indignant  at  his  resolve  to  appoint  a  distant  rela- 
tion as  his  successor  to  the  exclusion  of  his  own  son. 
She  is  credited  with  having  organised  the  assault, 
and  afterwards  got  rid  of  the  person  who  carried  it 
out.  As  she  further  had  a  number  of  innocent  per- 
sons murdered,  because  they  refused  to  acknowledge 
to  having  had  a  share  in  the  assassination,  she  appears 
to  have  been  a  worthy  sister  to  the  tyrant.  The 
rumour  that  Hakim  still  lived  and  would  return  at 
some  time  was  even  more  persistent  than  a  similar 
fancy  about  Nero.  There  are  sects  that  still  believe 
in  Hakim's  existence  and  destined  return.  It  is 
marvellous  that  they  should  desire  it. 

His  successor,  who  took  the  name  al-Zahir,  was 

[  50  ] 


SHAKIA-EL-AZIIAR,   CAIRO. 


THE    FATIMIDE    PERIOD 

rather  more  than  fourteen  years  of  age,  and  was  put 
on  the  throne  by  his  aunt  who,  like  so  many  Egyptian 
princesses,  from  immemorial  times,  took  an  active 
part  in  politics.  She  managed  to  maintain  herself 
in  the  regency  for  four  years,  during  which  she 
showed  more  skill  in  organising  executions  than  in 
securing  Egyptian  rule  over  the  provinces;  still 
neither  she  nor  her  nephew  exercised  whimsical 
tyranny  after  the  style  of  Hakim,  except  on  rare  oc- 
casions. Zahir  reigned  in  all  fifteen  years  and  eight 
months,  and  before  his  death  recovered  nearly  all 
Syria,  which  in  the  early  years  of  his  reign  had  been 
the  prey  of  a  variety  of  usurpers. 

The  fourth  Fatimide  Caliph  died  of  the  plague  in 
1036;  his  successor  Mustansir  was  aged  seven  years 
at  the  time  of  his  accession,  so  that  the  real  power 
fell  to  his  mother,  who  was  a  black  slave,  and  her 
former  master,  a  Jewish  curiosity  dealer,  named 
Abraham.  For  a  time  this  person,  through  the 
Caliph's  mother,  appointed  the  viziers,  among  them 
a  former  co-religionist  who  had  adopted  Islam;  this 
person,  however,  found  the  means  of  getting  rid  of 
his  benefactor,  and  presently  himself  fell  a  victim  to 
the  resentment  of  the  Caliph's  mother.  The  reign 
of  Mustansir  was  distinguished  by  the  commence- 
ment of  a  bodyguard  of  black  freedmen,  got  together 
by  the  Caliph,  it  is  supposed  because,  being  of  the 
same  race  as  his  mother,  their  fidelity  could  be 
trusted. 

Mustansir  was  particularly  favoured  by  having  his 
cause  taken  up  by  various  adventurers  in  different 

[53] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

parts  of  the  Moslem  empire,  of  whom  one  incorpo- 
rated Yemen  in  the  Egyptian  realm,  while  another 
even  took  Baghdad,  and  for  a  time  obtained  recogni- 
tion of  the  Fatimide  Caliph  in  the  metropolis  of  his 
rival.  This  event,  which  had  been  caused  by  dissen- 
sions in  the  family  of  the  Seljuks,  who  at  that  time 
wxre  supreme  in  the  Eastern  Caliphate,  was  of  short 
duration,  partly  because  the  adventurer  who  had 
taken  Baghdad  excited  the  envy  of  Mustansir's 
Vizier,  who  refused  further  supplies  to  his  rival, 
partly  because  the  military  talents  of  the  Seljuk 
prince  were  equal  to  the  emergency. 

Meanwhile  Egypt  wa^  troubled  by  the  rivalries 
between  the  Turkish  and  negro  elements  of  the 
Caliph's  bodyguard,  which  broke  out  into  open  war. 
The  result  was  long  doubtful,  but  finally  was  in 
favour  of  the  Turks,  commanded  by  Nasir  al-Daulah. 
The  claims  of  the  Turkish  praetorians  became,  in  con- 
sequence of  their  victory,  excessive,  and  a  dispute 
arose  between  their  commander,  Nasir  al-Daulah, 
and  the  Caliph,  which  ended  in  the  latter  falling  com- 
pletely under  the  former's  control,  who  even  threat- 
ened to  restore  Egypt  to  the  suzerainty  of  Baghdad. 
This  person's  rule,  which  ended  with  his  assassina- 
tion in  1073,  was  accompanied  by  great  misery;  the 
palace  of  the  Caliph  was  repeatedly  plundered,  and 
its  vast  library  partly  burned  and  partly  handed  over 
to  pillagers;  and  the  Caliph  himself  was  reduced  to 
absolute  poverty,  so  that  his  wife  and  daughters  had 
finally  to  flee  to  Baghdad  to  avoid  starvation.  It  is 
uncertain  whether  Nasir  al-Daulah's  ambition  was 

[54] 


THE    FATIMIDE    PERIOD 

to  become  governor  of  Egypt  for  the  Abbasids,  or 
whether  he  aimed  at  founding  a  dynasty  of  his  own. 
After  his  assassination  the  condition  of  the  Caliph 
did  not  at  first  better  itself;  in  despair  he  put  himself 
into  the  hands  of  Badr  al-Jamali,  an  Armenian  freed- 
man  who  had  served  as  Governor  of  Damascus  and 
Acre,  and  who  had  provided  himself  with  an  Ar- 
menian bodyguard;  this  person  accepted  the  Caliph's 
invitation  to  settle  the  affairs  of  Egypt,  which  he  be- 
gan in  old  Arab  style  by  summoning  all  the  existing 
officials  to  a  feast  and  murdering  them.  With  his 
unscrupulousness,  however,  he  combined  both  mili- 
tary and  administrative  ability  of  a  high  order,  and 
by  quelling  rebellion  everywhere  and  seeing  to  the 
proper  administration  of  justice  he  brought  back  a 
fair  degree  of  prosperity. 

During  the  rule  of  Badr  al-Jamali  the  walls  of 
Cairo  were,  as  we  have  seen,  rebuilt;  but  though 
Egypt  prospered,  the  Fatimides  lost  Syria,  which 
was  first  conquered  by  a  usurper  named  Athiz,  who 
went  so  far  as  to  invade  Egypt,  where  Badr  defeated 
him;  his  Syrian  conquests  then  fell  into  the  power  of 
the  Seljuk  Tutush,  from  whom  Badr  was  able  to  re- 
cover a  few  towns.  But  Damascus  remained  in  Sel- 
juk hands. 

Mustansir  died  in  1094,  having  reigned  over  sixty 
years,  more  than  any  other  Oriental  Caliph  or  Sul- 
tan. Like  Khumaruyah  he  appears  to  have  dis- 
played some  ingenuity  in  devising  new  forms  of 
pleasure,  but  otherwise  he  exhibited  no  competence. 
Before  order  was  restored  by  the  Armenian  troops 

[55] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

the  country  was  devastated  by  the  Berbers,  negroes, 
Turks  and  Syrians  who  formed  the  different  corps  of 
the  Caliph's  army;  Egyptian  troops  nowhere  figure  in 
the  list. 

The  death  of  Mustansir  was  followed  by  a  struggle 
for  the  succession,  in  which,  however,  the  youngest 
son  of  the  late  Caliph,  being  supported  by  Badr's  son 
and  successor,  al-Afdal,  was  victorious;  he  was  pro- 
claimed with  the  title  Musta'li.  Al-Afdal  put  him- 
self into  communication  with  the  Crusaders,  and  un- 
dertook to  aid  them  in  defeating  the  Seljuks;  and, 
indeed,  he  succeeded  in  retaking  Jerusalem  and  some 
other  places  in  Syria.  This  was  before  he  was  aware 
of  the  intentions  of  the  Crusaders  with  regard  to 
Jerusalem;  when  that  place,  in  1099,  fell  into  their 
hands,  and  the  whole  population  of  Moslems  was 
massacred,  al-Afdal  found  his  dominions  threatened 
by  the  Franks,  and  had  to  retire  to  Egypt,  leaving 
Syria  to  the  invaders.  By  i  lor  the  bulk  of  the  towns 
which  had  had  Egyptian  garrisons  had  fallen  into 
their  hands.  The  same  year  Musta'li  died,  and  was 
succeeded  by  his  son  al-Amir,  then  an  infant  five 
years  old.  Al-Afdal  acted  as  regent,  and  governed 
Egypt  well  for  twenty  years.  His  attempts,  how- 
ever, to  withstand  the  Franks  in  Syria  and  in  Pales- 
tine were  unsuccessful,  and  towns  which  had  re- 
mained in  Egyptian  hands,  such  as  Ptolemais  and 
Tripoli,  were  compelled  to  surrender. 

In  1 1 17  the  Crusaders  for  the  first  time  invaded 
Egypt  itself,  but  had  to  quit  it  the  next  year,  having 
effected  little.     In  1121  the  Caliph,  who  was  now  of 

[56] 


THE    FATIMIDE    PERIOD 

age,  feeling  tired  of  the  regent,  found  means  to  have 
him  assassinated;  his  possessions  were  then  confis- 
cated, and  it  was  found  that  he  had  enriched  himself 
beyond  even  the  by  no  means  contemplatible  per- 
formances of  previous  viziers.  He  was  succeeded  in 
his  office  by  the  man  who  had  been  employed  to 
organise  the  murder,  Ibn  Fatik  al-Bata'ihi,  who  had  ^ 
risen  from  the  ranks.  In  1125,  he,  too,  was  got  rid 
of  by  the  Caliph,  though  only  imprisoned,  and  the 
latter  proceeded  to  govern  personally  without  the  aid 
of  a  vizier.  His  rule  was  exceedingly  arbitrary  and 
vexatious,  and  he  involved  himself  in  much  blood- 
shed; his  end  was  however  brought  on,  not  by  the 
resentment  of  his  subjects,  but  by  fanatics  of  a  sect 
who  held  that  his  father's  elder  brother  Nizar  had 
been  wrongly  displaced.  By  one  of  these  he  was 
assassinated  in  1130. 

He  was  succeeded  by  a  cousin  who  took  the  title 
^iafiz,  and  was  compelled  to  employ  as  his  vizier 
Ahmad  the  son  of  the  murdered  al-Afdal  and  grand- 
son of  Badr  al-Jamali.  This  vizier  enjoyed  his 
honours  for  a  little  more  than  a  year,  during  which 
he  had  made  himself  detested  by  insolence  towards 
the  Caliph,  and  an  endeavour  to  modify  the  current 
form  of  religion;  like  his  father  he  was  got  out  of 
the  way  by  assassination.  According  to  custom  an 
Armenian  freedman  Yanis,  who  had  organised  the 
attack  on  the  former  vizier,  was  installed  in  his  vic- 
tim's place.  A  year's  time  brought  him  into  con- 
flict with  the  Caliph  who  resorted  to  a  subtle  form  of 
poison  to  relieve  himself  of  the  vizier.     Hafiz  shortly 

[57] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

after  had  to  deal  with  an  Absalom  in  the  shape  of  his 
son  Hasan,  who  fought  pitched  battles  with  his 
younger  brother  and  then  with  troops  summoned  to 
defend  his  father;  he  was  victorious  and  forced  his 
father  to  name  him  successor,  and  to  hand  over  to 
him  the  reins  of  authority,  but  his  conduct  quickly 
gave  offence;  he  was  compelled  to  take  refuge  with 
his  father  within  the  palace,  and  a  Jewish  and  a 
Christian  physician  were  summoned  to  administer 
poison  to  him;  the  Jew  refused,  but  the  Christian 
provided  what  was  required.  In  consequence  the 
Christian  was  presently  executed  by  the  Caliph's 
order,  and  his  property  given  to  the  Jew  who  became 
sole  court  physician.  The  army,  which  by  this  time 
claimed  the  right  to  make  all  appointments  of  a 
political  nature,  gave  the  post  of  vizier  to  an  Ar- 
menian Christian  named  Bahram,  and  he  filled  most 
of  the  subordinate  posts  with  Armenians,  who,  in 
spite  of  their  religion,  have  frequently  formed  the 
cabinets  of  Moslem  rulers.  His  power  lasted  from 
1 135  to  1 137.  An  adventurer  named  Ridwan  then 
gathered  an  army  and  displaced  him;  his  power  also 
lasted  two  years  only,  after  which  he  was  compelled 
by  Hafiz  to  flee  from  Cairo  to  Syria,  where  he  col- 
lected an  army  in  the  hope  of  recovering  Egypt;  after 
a  variety  of  adventures,  combining  successes  and  fail- 
ures, he  was  assassinated  in  1148.  The  Caliph  him- 
self died  in  1149. 

He  was  followed  by  his  youngest  son  Ismail,  called 
Zafir,  who  was  seventeen  years  old  at  the  time.  In 
character  he  was  no  stronger  than  his  predecessors, 

[58] 


COURTYARD   OF   THE    MOSgUE    OF    EL   AZHAK.    INlVERSFrV    OF   CAIRO. 


THE    FATIMIDE    PERIOD 

and  the  vizierate  was  seized  by  an  ambitious  gover- 
nor of  Alexandria,  named  Ibn  Sallar,  who  presently 
was  murdered  by  his  stepson,  who  in  his  turn  was  in- 
stalled in  the  dangerous  office.  This  episode  cost  the 
Fatimides  Askalon,  their  last  possession  in  Palestine, 
which,  owing  to  the  disputes  between  the  rival  parties 
was  taken  by  the  Crusaders. 

Zafir  was,  after  a  reign  of  four  years,  murdered  by 
his  favourite  Nasr,  the  son  of  the  Vizier  Abbas,  who 
then  proceeded  to  make  away  with  the  brothers  of 
the  Caliph,  and  to  place  on  the  throne  his  infant  son, 
Isa,  called  Fa'iz.  He  attempted  to  govern  independ- 
ently, but  gave  dissatisfaction  and  was  shortly  com- 
pelled to  flee  before  a  South  Egyptian  governor, 
Tala'i  Ibn  Ruzzik,  who  came  with  an  army  to  Cairo 
and  usurped  the  office  of  vizier.  The  youthful 
Caliph,  who  suffered  from  epileptic  fits,  occasioned 
by  the  violence  which  accompanied  his  accession, 
died  at  the  age  of  eleven  in  the  year  1160. 

The  vizier,  after  the  ordinary  custom,  appointed 
to  the  vacant  Caliphate  a  child,  cousin  of  the  de- 
ceased, who  was  nine  years  of  age,  and  was  given  the 
title  Adid;  with  him  the  Fatimide  Caliphate  was 
destined  to  terminate.  According  to  the  ordinary 
custom  also  the  Caliph  soon  grew  tired  of  the  regency 
of  the  vizier,  and  hired  persons  to  assassinate  him, 
and  as  the  vizier  lived  after  the  attempt  on  his  life 
long  enough  to  avenge  himself,  the  Caliph  had  the 
baseness  to  lay  the  blame  on  his  aunt  and  hand  her 
over  to  execution.  The  vizierate  was  seized  by  the 
son  of  the  murdered  man,  who,  however,  was  speedily 

[61] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

displaced  by  the  governor  of  Upper  Egypt,  Shawar, 
a  man  who  had  already  figured  as  a  person  of  impor- 
tance in  previous  reigns;  who  ere  long  had  to  give 
way  to  another  usurper,  Dirgham,  head  of  a  corps 
formed  by  Tala'i,  whose  conduct  soon  made  his  fol- 
lowers wish  Shawar  back.  The  disturbed  state  of 
Egypt  gave  the  Crusaders  an  opportunity  to  effect  a 
landing,  do  much  damage,  and  only  retire  on  promise 
of  tribute.  Meanwhile  Shawar  had  found  an  ally 
in  the  Prince  of  Damascus,  and  in  1164  returned  to 
Egypt  with  an  army  commanded  by  a  general  of  the 
latter  named  Shirguh;  after  a  month's  resistance 
Dirgham  found  himself  deserted,  and  both  he  and 
his  brothers  met  their  deaths.  After  the  joint  enter- 
prise of  Shawar  and  Shirguh  had  been  crowned  with 
success,  the  two  fell  out,  and  since  Shawar  did  not 
shrink  from  applying  for  the  help  of  the  Crusaders, 
Shirguh  was  compelled  to  return  to  Syria.  Early  in 
1 167  he  returned  with  an  army  of  2000  picked  men, 
with  whose  aid  he  won  a  decisive  victory  over  the 
united  forces  of  Shawar  and  the  Franks  at  Ush- 
munain  in  the  same  year.  It  is  in  this  battle  that 
we  first  hear  of  Saladin,  sent  by  Nur  al-din,  the 
Prince  of  Damascus,  accompanying  and  aiding  his 
uncle  Shirguh.  After  the  battle  Saladin  was  ap- 
pointed by  his  uncle  governor  of  Alexandria,  where 
he  was  presently  besieged  by  the  united  forces  of 
Shawar  and  his  Prankish  allies.  The  news  that 
Shirguh  had  commenced  the  siege  of  Cairo  induced 
the  parties  to  make  peace,  and  by  the  end  of  the  year 
Shirguh  had  withdrawn  to  Damascus.     Meanwhile 

[62] 


THE    FATIMIDE    PERIOD 

a  Frankish  garrison  was  admitted  into  Cairo  to  make 
sure  of  the  tribute  which  had  been  promised  the 
Crusaders  as  the  price  of  their  assistance,  and  treated 
the  inhabitants  with  great  harshness.  The  ill-con- 
tent of  the  inhabitants  led  to  the  summoning  of  Nur 
al-din  from  Syria  by  the  Caliph,  while  on  the  other 
hand  a  Frankish  army  came  from  the  north  of  Egypt 
and  began  to  lay  siege  to  Cairo.  On  this  occasion 
occurred  the  burning  of  Fostat,  which  was  described 
above.  The  Franks  were  bribed  by  Shawar  to  re- 
tire; but  Shirguh's  forces  were  received  with  joy  by 
the  people  of  Cairo,  and  in  a  short  time  after  their 
arrival  Shawar  was,  at  Saladin's  ins_tance,  attacked 
and  put  to  death.  Shirguh,  who  got  his  place,  oc- 
cupied it  only  two  months,  since  in  March,  1168,  he 
fell  a  vktim  to  gluttony.  After  some  claims  being 
put  forward  by  other  candidates,  Saladin  was 
chosen  to  succeed  him  as  vizier  and  governor  of  the  j 
Egyptian  Empire.  Saladin  was  an  earnest  fol- 
lower of  the  Sunni  doctrines,  on  opposition  to  which 
the  Fatimide  throne  was  based;  he  therefore  ap- 
pointed persons  of  his  own  persuasion  to  the  chief 
posts  in  Egypt,  and  constantly  reduced  the  sphere  of 
activity  of  the  Caliph.  As  usual  he  was  threatened 
with  an  insurrection,  but  was  able  to  suppress  it;  and 
with  the  aid  of  his  chief,  Nur  al-din,  raised  the  siege 
of  Damietta,  which  had  been  besieged  by  the  Franks 
with  a  powerful  force.  His  further  exploits  in  deal- 
ing with  the  Crusaders  are  well  known.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  1 171  Saladin  finally  consented  to  a  step 
which  Nur  al-din  had  been  long  urging  on  him,  that 

[63] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

I  of  substituting  in  the  Friday  prayer  the  name  of  the 
Baghdad  Caliph  for  that  of  the  Fatimide  Adid;  and 
Adid,  who  was  ill  at  the  time,  fortunately  died  a  few 
days  after,  and  never  heard  of  his  dethronement  and 
the  loss  of  the  imperial  title  to  his  family.  Mean- 
while steps  had  been  taken  to  substitute  orthodox  for 
Shi'ite  judges,  and  also  to  found  schools  and  colleges 
where  the  younger  generation  should  be  brought 
up  in  Sunnite  principles.  Though  Adid  was  but 
twenty-one  years  at  his  death  he  left  several  children, 
two  of  whom  found  some  partisans;  but  their  at- 
tempts to  regain  the  throne  were  unsuccessful  and 
disastrous  to  their  followers. 

The  history  of  the  Fatimides  bears  a  close  resem- 
blance to  that  of  the  Baghdad  Caliphs,  except  that 
the  Abbasid  family  appears  to  have  produced  far 
more  able  men,  and  the  mayors  of  the  palace  in  the  lat- 
tercase  succeeded  in  founding  dynasties  of  some  dura- 
tion, unlike  the  ephemeral  vizierates  of  the  Fatimide 
Empire.     The    plan   of   appointing   infants   to   the 
^throne  in  order  to  permit  the  ministers  a  free  hand 
V  will  meet  us  repeatedly.     The  results  were  ordinarily 
I  disastrous  to  both  minister  and  sovereign. 


[64] 


BUILDINGS    OF   THE    FATIMIDE    PERIOD 

ONE  of  the  earliest  cares  of  Jauhar,  the  con- 
queror of  Egypt  for  the  Fatimides,  was  to 
build  a  mosque  for  public  worship,  and 
this  project  was  the  commencement  of  the 
famous  al-Azhar.  It  took  about  two  years  to  erect, 
and  was  finished  June  14,  Q72.  It  was  not  at  first  a 
literary  institution  any  more  than  any  other  mosque; 
all  such  places  had  from  the  beginning  of  Islam 
served  as  rendezvous  for  savants,  and  places  where 
those  who  undertook  to  interpret  the  Koran  or  recite 
traditions  could  establish  themselves.  The  line  be- 
tween religious  and  secular  studies  was  not  drawn 
during  the  early  centuries  of  Islam;  men  made  cir- 
cles in  the  mosques  for  the  purpose  of  reciting  verses, 
or  telling  literary  anecdotes,  as  well  as  for  instruction 
of  a  more  decidedly  edifying  character.  The__first 
mosque  qyer  built  iri_  Islam,  that  of  the  Prophet  at 
IVledinah,  had  served  a  number  of  purposes  for  which 
separate  buildings  were  deemed  necessary  in  more 
specialising  days:  it  had  not  only  been  church  and 
school,  but  town  hall,  hospice  and  hospital  as  well. 
Since  politics  and  religion  could  not  be  kept  distinct, 

[65] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

the  mosque  was  the  place  where  announcements  of 
importance  respecting  the  commonwealth  might  be 
made.  The  ideas  connected  with  it  in  some  ways  re- 
sembled those  which  attach  to  a  church,  in  others 
were  more  like  those  which  are  connected  with  a  syn- 
agogue, but  the  peculiar  evolution  of  Islam  furnished 
it  with  some  which  those  other  buildings  do  not  share. 

The  person  who  conceived  the  idea  of  turning  the 
first  mosque  of  the  new  city  into  a  university  was  the 
astute  convert  from  Judaism  who  had  suggested  to 
the  Fatimide  sovereign  that  the  time  was  ripe  for  the 
conquest  of  Egypt,  and  had  been  rewarded  for  his 
advice  by  being  made  vizier.  Having  been  born  in 
Baghdad  in  the  year  930,  he  had  come  to  Egypt  in 
942,  where  he  got  employment  in  the  office  of  one  of 
Kafur's  ministers;  in  this  capacity  he  obtained  the 
notice  of  Kafur,  who  promoted  him  from  one  office 
to  another  till  he  became  chief  treasurer.  In  967  he 
embraced  Islam,  and  took  into  his  house  a  tutor  who 
could  give  him  regular  instruction  in  the  matters 
which  a  Moslem  gentleman  should  know.  Once 
vizier,  he  followed  the  example  of  many  who  had 
previously  held  that  high  office,  in  becoming  a  patron 
of  learning  and  belles  lettres;  on  Thursday  evenings 
he  regularly  held  a  salon  in  his  house  for  the  recita- 
tion of  his  own  compositions,  and  also  for  reunion  of 
all  the  savants  of  Cairo. 

The  notion,  however,  of  Jacob,  son  of  Killis,  in 
encouraging  learning  was  somewhat  deeper  than  that 
which  had  inspired  many  other  viziers.  Since  the 
Fatimide  dynasty  had  succeeded  in  virtue  of  its  reli- 

[66] 


BUILDINGS  OF  THE  FATIMIDE  PERIOD 

gious  claims,  it  was  necessary  to  provide  for  its  main- 
tenance by  a  body  of  literature  comparable  with  that 
which  the  supporters  of  the  rival  Caliph  could  dis- 
play, and  which  enjoyed  widespread  respect  and  au- 
thority owing  to  the  long  series  of  venerated  names 
concerned  with  its  composition  and  perpetuation. 
These  authoritative  books  once  provided,  and  ar- 
rangements being  made  whereby  their  study  could 
be  encouraged  and  maintained,  no  mean  dam  would 
be  provided  against  inundation  from  without.  The 
books  therefore  he  composed  himself;  the  University 
was  to  secure  that  they  should  be  properly  studied 
and  interpreted. 

In  988,  when  the  second  Fatimide  Caliph  was 
reigning,  Jacob  Ibn  Killis  requested  his  master  to 
provide  a  grar^t  for  the  m^aintgiiance  of  a  fi^xed  num- 
ber of  scholars.  The  Caliph  Aziz  assented;  provi- 
sions were  made  for  thirty-five  students,  and  a  house 
adjoining  Jauhar's  Mosque  secured  for  their  lodging. 

Thus  began  al-A^zhar.  whose  name  is  thought  to 
have  been  selected  out  of  compliment  to  the  supposed 
foundress  of  the  Fatimide  line,  Fatimah,  honourably 
called  al-Zahra  (the  luminous),  of  which  word 
Azhar  is  the  masculine.  This  year's  statistics  give 
9758as  the  present  number  of  students,  with  7J2Jt^lP' 


97J^3 
lessors 


[esso_rs.  At  times  the  numbers  of  both  have  been 
still  greater.  Political  events  led  to  its  diversion 
from  its  original  purpose  as  a  school  of  heresy  to  its 
becoming  the  great  centre  of  Moslem  orthodoxy;  but 
what  circumstance  it  was  that  enabled  it  to  eclipse 
all  its  rivals  is  not  so  clear.     We  understand  why  the 

[69] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

University  of  Cairo  should  have  survived  those  of 
Spain  and  those  of  Irak.  Cairo  was  the  metropolis 
of  Islam  when  those  countries  could  no  longer  con- 
tain one,  and  the  city  to  which  it  handed  over  its 
headship,  Constantinople,  spoke  a  foreign  tongue  and 
not  the  original  language  of  Mohammedanism. 
But  in  Cairo  itself  there  were  so  many  rivals  at  all 
periods;  in  the  period  of  the  later  Mamelukes  every 
sovereign,  almost,  built  and  liberally  endowed  a  col- 
lege to  perpetuate  his  name.  Probably  al-Azhar 
superseded  the  others  in  virtue  of  its  antiquity  and 
the  reputation  which  it  won.  Its  name  was  known 
all  over  the  Mohammedan  world;  the  others  scarcely 
got  the  chance  to  become  fashionable. 

The  second  founder  of  al-Azhar  was  the  mad 
Hakim,  whose  madness  did  not  prevent  his  under- 
standing the  importance  of  learning.  He  himself 
founded  three  mosques,  and  got  together  a  great 
library,  which  once  occupied  part  of  the  Eastern 
Palace.  The  purpose  of  this  last  institution  was  in 
the  main  to  spread  the  tenets  of  his  dynasty  and  his 
own  variations  of  them.  His  deed  of  gift  is  pre- 
served in  full,  and  contains  a  number  of  details  as  to 
the  nature  of  the  moneys  bestowed  and  the  mode  in 
which  they  were  to  be  administered.  The  deed  con- 
tains his  benefactions  to  his  three  mosques,  to  al- 
Azhar,  and  to  his  public  library  or  academy.  To 
the  share  of  the  Azhar  there  fell,  besides  books,  three 
public  buildings  in  the  older  city;  for  it  was  the  cus- 
tom at  this  time  and  long  after  in  Egypt  to  settle  on 
religious  institutions  not  lands,  but  the  rents  of  houses 

[70] 


BUILDINGS  OF  THE  FATIMIDE  PERIOD 

or  shops.  The  trustees  were,  whenever  necessary,  to 
advertise  the  buildings  for  hire,  to  keep  them  in  good 
repair  with  the  proceeds,  and  to  make  a  number 
of  specified  payments  out  of  the  remainder.  The 
Preacher  of  the  Mosque  was  to  have  seven  dinars 
(perhaps  75  francs)  a  month;  other  sums  were  to  be 
expended  on  matting,  glass,  incense  and  other  scents, 
camphor,  wax,  etc.,  and  certain  sums  were  to  be  set 
aside  for  payment  of  persons  employed  in  sweeping, 
repairing,  cleaning,  etc.  Three  leaders  of  prayer, 
four  other  religious  officials  and  fifteen  mueddins 
were  to  have  between  them  556  dinars;  other  sums 
were  set  apart  for  the  hospice.  Even  such  details 
as  dusters  for  cleaning  the  lamps,  buckets  for  scour- 
ing and  brooms  for  sweeping  were  provided  for  by 
specified  payments  to  come  out  of  the  benefactions. 

The  plan  of  the  original  Mosque  bore  some  re- 
semblance to  that  of  the  Mosque  of  Ibn  Tulun,  being 
a  rectangle  with  the  sanctuary  side  wider  and  there- 
fore supported  by  more  rows  of  columns  than  the 
rest;  but  in  the  case  of  al-Azhar  piers  were  not  used, 
their  place  being  taken  by  380  columns  of  different 
materials,  marble,  porphyry  and  granite,  with  bases 
and  capitals  of  different  styles.  Though  it  was  fre- 
quently restored  and  repaired,  additions  seem  to  have 
been  made  only  in  comparatively  late  times.  The 
Caliph  Mustansir  is  mentioned  as  one  of  its  bene- 
factors; and  in  the  time  of  the  Mameluke  Baibars  I 
an  Emir,  Izz  al-din  Idumir,  restored  walls  and  col- 
umns, plastered  the  former  afresh,  and  repaired  roof 
and  pavement.  In  1303  it,  with  several  other  mosques, 

[71] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

was  partly  demolished  by  an  earthquake;  the  Emir 
Sallar  undertook  the  restoration  of  what  had  fallen. 
A  fresh  restoration  was  undertaken  in  the  year  1360 
by  Bashir  the  cup-bearer;  he  built  an  establishment 
for  the  provision  of  drinking-water  on  the  south  side, 
with  a  school  for  poor  children  above  it.  In  1382 
fresh  emoluments  were  provided  by  a  law  that  prop- 
erty of  all  intestate  residents  of  the  Mosque  should 
fall  to  it. 

From  the  first  it  had  been  the  custom  of  students 
who  had  no  other  lodging  in  Cairo  to  live  in  the 
Mosque,  and  the  spaces  between  the  columns  were 
more  and  more  fitted  as  dormitories  for  that  purpose; 
different  parts  being  assigned  to  different  nationali- 
ties, and  in  after  times  to  different  sects.  Various  leg- 
acies were  left  for  the  maintenance  of  these  students, 
while  pious  persons  undertook  the  duty  at  different 
times  of  supplying  them  with  necessaries  or  luxuries. 
An  attempt  was  made  in  the  year  141 5  by  an  officious 
Kadi  to  turn  these  poor  students  out,  doubtless  with 
the  view  of  rendering  the  condition  of  the  Mosque 
cleaner  and  more  sanitary;  this  measure  had  only 
temporary  effect,  though  great  annoyance  seems  to 
have  been  caused  by  it  at  the  time.  A  fresh  restora- 
tion took  place  in  the  year  1495  and.  another  in  1596; 
on  this  last  occasion  a  benefaction  of  lentils  was  as- 
signed to  all  students  for  daily  consumption,  and  this 
caused  a  great  inflow  of  scholars.  Ten  years  after- 
wards it  was  freshly  paved  and  otherwise  repaired, 
lywaz  Bey,  who  died  in  the  year  1724,  renewed  the 
roof,  which  was  falling  in,  and  since  then  a  variety  of 

[72] 


BUILDINGS  OF  THE  FATIMIDE  PERIOD 

additions  and  improvements  have  been  effected. 
The  improvements  of  Abd  al-Rahman  in  1777  in- 
cluded two  minarets,  an  erection  of  fifty  marble 
columns  containing  a  school,  a  cistern  and  a  mauso- 
leum for  himself;  a  dormitory  for  students  from  Up- 
per Egypt,  and  a  new  gate  of  vast  dimensions  made 
so  as  to  introduce  the  Taibarsi  and  Akbogha  colleges 
within  the  precincts  of  al-Azhar.  Other  dormitories 
or  cloisters  have  been  added  for  students  from  Bagh- 
dad, Meccah,  Hindustan,  etc. 

The  Mosque  has  eight  gates,  of  which  the  largest 
is  called  the  Barbers'  Gate,  opposite  the  opening  of 
Boxmakers'  Street;  this  gate,  which  is  double,  has 
above  it  a  school  and  a  minaret.  It  was  erected  by 
the  Abd  al-Rahman  mentioned  above.  The  inscrip- 
tion on  the  older  gate  which  occupied  the  same  site  is 
still  preserved,  and  is  to  the  effect  that  the  gate  was 
erected  in  1469  by  the  Sultan  Kaietbai.  The  re- 
maining gates  are  named  after  the  Moors,  Syrians, 
Upper  Egyptians,  etc.  The  maksurah  (a  kind  of 
private  pew  surrounded  with  a  grating,  in  which 
eminent  personages  take  part  in  devotions)  is  repre- 
sented in  al-Azhar  by  several  erections;  the  oldest  is 
the  work  of  Jauhar  and  extends  from  the  Gate  of  the 
Syrians  to  the  Cloister  of  the  Orientals,  and  is  on 
seventy-six  pillars  of  white  marble;  it  communicates 
with  the  quadrangle  of  the  Mosque  by  three  doors. 
The  second  maksurah  built  by  Abd  al-Rahman  is 
separated  from  Jauhar's  by  a  court,  and  its  roof  is 
some  two  metres  higher  than  that  of  Jauhar. 

The  great  university  of  al-Azhar  has  recently  been 

[73] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

accurately  described  in  French  by  M.  Arminjean 
("  L'enseignement,  la  doctrine,  et  la  Vie  dans  les  Uni- 
versites  Musumanes  d'Egypte,"  Paris,  1907),  in  a 
manner  that  leaves  little  to  be  desired,  whether  in  re- 
gard to  the  structure  of  the  buildings,  the  nature  of 
the  studies,  or  the  mode  in  which  the  students  spend 
their  time.  Two  of  its  denizens  furnished  him  with 
autobiographies,  and  these  give  a  vivid  impression  of 
the  character  of  a  Mohammedan  "  University  Ca- 
reer." Our  notion  of  a  course  of  study,  limited  in 
time,  followed  by  a  degree  after  which  the  student 
ceases  to  be  a  student,  must  be  removed  from  the 
mind,  if  we  would  familiarise  ourselves  with  the  ways 
of  al-Azhar — at  least  the  al-Azhar  of  all  but  the  most 
recent  times — for  here,  too,  it  would  seem  that  the 
examination  system  and  European  hurry  are  begin- 
ning to  make  themselves  felt.  The  underlying 
theory  of  the  Oriental  University  is  that  there  is  noth- 
ing new  under  the  sun.  It  is  therefore  the  purpose 
I  of  the  teacher  to  communicate  as  accurately  as  possi- 
jble  what  he  has  himself  learned;  of  the  student  to 
(  master  it  with  the  same  thoroughness,  to  leave  noth- 
'  ing  out,  but  never  to  add  anything  of  his  own.  The 
\  sciences,  as  they  are  called,  of  al-Azhar  were  all  per- 
fected in  past  time — before  the  fall  of  the  Caliphate 
of  Baghdad;  what  the  student  has  to  do  is  to  acquire 
mastery  of  the  manuals  in  which  that  old  learning 
was  finally  incorporated,  or  some  abridgement  of 
them,  or  else  an  abridgement  of  an  abridgement.  He 
may  perhaps  spend  his  whole  life  in  accomplishing 
this  task;  in  any  case  it  will  take  him  a  number  of 

[74] 


BUILDINGS  OF  THE  FATIMIDE  PERIOD 

years.  (For  what   the   Oriental   learns    he   usually    // 
learns  very  thoroughly  indeed.J 

Next  in  importance  to  the  Mosque  al-Azhar 
among  Fatimide  edifices  is  the  Mosque  of  Hakim, 
outside  the  first  but  inside  the  second  wall  of  Cairo. 
Built  on  piers,  and  with  brise  or  slightly  pointed 
arches,  it  bore  considerable  resemblance  to  the 
Tulunid  Mosque,  and  even  the  minaret  is  not  wholly 
unlike  that  which  has  been  described  in  dealing  with 
that  building;  but  it  has  long  been  in  ruins,  certain 
piers  and  arches  only  standing  beside  the  dismantled 
minaret.  Commenced  by  the  second  Fatimide 
Caliph,  it  was  finished  by  the  mad  Hakim  in  1012; 
and  richly  furnished  and  endowed  by  him.  The 
floors  were  covered  with  36,000  square  yards  of  mat-  %y 
ting.  In  the  year  1303  it  was  wrecked  by  the  earth- 
quake which,  as  has  already  been  seen,  did  consider- 
able havoc  to  the  buildings  in  Cairo;  it  was  then 
repaired  by  the  Sultan  Baibars,  who  in  addition  to 
fresh  revenues  for  its  maintenance  appointed  pro- 
fessors of  the  four  schools  of  law  to  lecture  in  it,  and 
furnished  endowments  for  scholars.  In  1359  it  was 
restored  by  the  Sultan  jiasan,  who  paved  the  whole 
afresh ;  and  an  endowment  of  560  feddans  was  added 
to  its  estates. 

Nevertheless  for  some  reason  the  Mosque  became 
deserted  soon  after  this  and  appears  to  have  been  so 
in  MakrizTs  time.  In  the  early  part  of  the  last  cen- 
tury it  was  occupied  by  Syrian  artisans  of  different 
sorts,  such  as  makers  of  glass  lamps,  silk-weavers, 
etc.     Of  the  original  seven  gatgg  two  remained  open, 

[77] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

the  rest  being  walled  up.  For  some  part  of  the  last 
century  it  was  used  as  an  Arab  museum,  but  even  this 
service  to  learning  and  religion  it  no  longer  renders. 
Tala'i  son  of  Ruzzik,  of  whom  a  short  account  was 
given  above,  vizier  of  the  last  Fatimide  Caliph,  built 
a  mosque  somewhat  to  the  south  of  the  Zuwailah 
Gate.  Its  purpose  was  to  harbour  the  head  of 
Jlusain,  son  of  Ali,  hero  of  the  Muharram  Miracle^ 
plays;  this  precious  relic  had  been  kept  at  Ascalon, 
and  it  was  feared  that  it  might  fall  into  the  hands 
of  the  Crusaders.  The  Caliph,  however,  refused  to 
let  it  be  housed  anywhere  save  in  the  Palace,  and  the 
Mosque  built  for  its  reception  remained  neglected  till 
the  brief  reign  of  Aibek,  under  whom,  in  1252,  serv- 
♦ice  began  to  be  performed  in  it.  It  fell  in  the  great 
jearthquake^  of  1303,  but  was  rebuilt.  The  place 
where  the  heaT  was  actually  deposited  is  said  to  be 
where  the  great  Mosque  of  Sayyiduna  Husain  now 
stands.  A  magnificent  building  was,  immediately 
after  its  arrival,  built  to  hold  it,  and  travellers  of  the 
sixth  century  speak  with  enthusiasm  of  this  Mash- 
had  (or  saint's  grave).  Marble,  silk,  gold,  silver 
and  other  precious  materials  were  lavished  upon  it  as 
if  they  were  of  no  account.  The  Mosque  was  re- 
peatedly enlarged  in  the  time  of  Abd  al-Rahman 
Ketkhuda,  and  more  recently  in  that  of  the  Khedive 
Abbas  Pasha,  and  afterwards  in  that  of  Isma'il.  Ali 
Pasha  Mubarak,  in  his  account  of  the  Mosque,  com- 
plains that  an  excellent  plan  drawn  by  himself  had 
been  spoiled  in  the  execution;  in  consequence  of 
which  the  building  was  out  of  the  correct  orientation, 

[78] 


BUILDINGS  OF  THE  FATIMIDE  PERIOD 

and  by  the  time  he  himself  came  to  be  head  of  the 
public  works  department,  it  could  not  be  rectified. 
Its  revenue  in  this  time — about  twenty  years  ago — 
amounted  to  about  £1000  yearly;  and  more  trouble 
w^as  taken  there  than  with  any  other  mosque  to  keep 
everything  in  a  state  of  the  most  perfect  purity. 

It  is,  of  course,  highly  improbable  that  the  head 
which  it  contains  really  belonged  to  the  prophet's 
grandson;  though  of  the  ultimate  fate  of  the  real 
head  there  seems  to  be  some  doubt.  Perhaps  the 
claims  of  the  relic  to  be  genuine  were  not  more  pre- 
posterous than  those  of  the  Fatimides  to  be  connected 
with  the  mother  of  Husain.  Moreover,  it  pleased 
the  Fatimides  to  maintain  the  doctrine  that  large 
numbers  of  the  Alid  family  in  early  times  found  their 
final  resting-places  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Cairo. 
The  Sayyidah  Zainab,  indeed,  presumably  a  daughter 
of  Ali  himself,  who  gives  her  name  to  a  quarter  of 
Cairo,  appears  to  be  a  very  late  importation — later 
even  than  the  end  of  the  Fatimide  period;  but  the 
story  that  another  Zainab,  daughter  of  a  much  later 
Ali  who  was,  however,  one  of  the  twelve  Imams,  was 
buried  in  Cairo,  goes  back  probably  to  Fatimide 
times. 

One  more  mosque  dating  from  this  period  should 
be  mentioned,  the  modest  building  called  al-Akmar, 
in  the  Nahassin  Street.  It  dates  from  the  time  of 
the  Caliph  Amir,  though  it  has  repeatedly  undergone 
repairs  and  alterations.  M.  Herz,  the  highest  au- 
thority on  Moslem  architecture,  observes  that  it  is  the 
only  example  of  a  Fatimide  building  in  which  the 

[79] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

facade  corresponds  with  the  disposition  of  the  edifice. 
Prior  to  that  time  the  facade  played  an  unimportant 
part;  the  small  dimensions  of  this  Mosque  may  have 
permitted  the  architect  to  experiment.  The  door- 
way is  surmounted  by  a  shallow  niche,  with  fluting 
for  ornament  round  it,  and  with  a  central  rosette 
made  up  of  letters;  the  decoration,  afterwards  so 
familiar,  the  stalactite,  is  said  to  appear  in  this 
mosque  for  the  first  time. 


[80] 


THE   AYYUBID  PERIOD   AND    ITS   BUILDINGS 

'ACH  dynasty  that  got  control  over  Egypt 
founded  a  new  capital,  ordinarily  within 
easy  distance  of  the  last;  the  dynasty  estab- 
lished by  Saladin  and  destined  to  control 
the  nearer  East  for  something  less  than  a  hundred 
years  did  not  abandon  this  precedent.  From  Cairo 
itself  the  seat  of  government  was  to  shift  to  the  south- 
east, the  high  ground  between  the  city  and  Mount 
Mokattam,  where  a  site  was  found  for  a  citadel.  The 
idea  of  such  a  structure  is  said  to  have  been  suggested 
by  the  Crusaders'  procedure.  The  soldiers  of  the 
Cross,  when  they  had  conquered  a  hostile  country, 
shut  themselves  up  in  fortresses  such  as  their  chiefs 
possessed  in  Europe,  where,  safe  from  attack,  they 
could  retain  and  enjoy  their  mastery.  Saladin, 
chiefly  remembered  in  history  for  his  successful  re-  ji 
sistance  to  the  Crusaders,  learned  from  his  enemies^!' 
and  built  himself  a  fortress  similar  to  theirs. 

The  selection  by  Saladin  or  his  minister  Kara- 
kush  of  a  point  dominated  as  the  Cairene  Citadel  is 
by  a  mountain,  has  been  criticised  by  European  writ- 
ers  as   a  strategic  blunder;   and  defended   on  the 

[8i] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

ground  that  a  fortress  actually  on  the  top  of  Mount 
Mokattam  would  have  been  too  far  removed  from 
the  city  to  be  of  much  use  for  either  protecting  the 
inhabitants  of  Cairo  or  keeping  them  in  order,  and 
would,  besides,  have  involved  the  fortification  of  the 
eminence  on  which  the  Citadel  was  built^  to  prevent 
the  mountain  being  isolated  by  some  enterprising 
enemy  who  chose  to  occupy  that  intervening  height. 
And  this  defence  seems  unanswerable. 

The  site  of  the  Citadel  is  supposed  to  have  origi- 
nally had  the  name  "  Cupola  of  the  Air,"  and  to  have 
directly  overlooked  a  parade  ground  established  by 
Ahmad  Ibn  Tulun;  the  whole  place  was  after  his 
time  turned  into  a  cemetery  (karafah),  in  which 
numerous  mosques  were  erected.  Here  Saladin 
ordered  Karakush  to  build  a  fortress,  which  he  was 
never  destined  to  inhabit  himself.  His  residence, 
when  Sultan,  was  the  old  Palace  of  the  Viziers,  and 
the  first  Sultan  who  inhabited  the  Citadel  itself  was 
al-Kamil,  who  came  to  the  throne  many  years  after 
Saladin's  death. 

The  Citadel  in  all  the  plans  is  divided  into  two 
distinct  portions:  the  northern,  rectangular  in  shape 
(at  least  on  three  sides),  and  the  southeastern,  sepa- 
rated from  the  former  by  a  thick  wall.  Casanova 
suggests  that  the  former  was  what  was  intended  in 
Saladin's  original  plan.  After  the  work  had  made 
some  progress,  he  bethought  him  of  building  himself 
a  palace  under  the  shelter  of  the  Citadel. 

Access  to  the  northern  enclosure  was  given  by  a 
gate  called  by  various  names,  among  them  the  Step 

[82] 


AN   OLD    PALACE,   CAIRO. 


^vJll 


THE   AYYUBID    PERIOD 

Gate,  owing  to  the  nature  of  the  approach — a  part 
of  this  ancient  flight  of  stairs  was  discovered  and 
identified  by  Casanova.  The  material  for  the 
Citadel  was  supplied  by  some  pyramids  near  Mem- 
phis, which  Karakush  had  no  hesitation  in  demolish- 
ing, while  thousands  of  Prankish  prisoners  were  em- 
ployed in  forced  labour. 

To  Saladin  is  ascribed  the  excavation  of  the 
Wall  of  Joseph,  called,  according  to  some  authorities, 
after  Saladin's  own  name,  while  others  fancy  it  to 
be  named  after  the  Patriarch,  a  favourite  with  the 
Moslems  of  Egypt.  The  well  was  regarded  as  one 
of  the  wonders  of  engineering  architecture,  and  was 
frequently  described  by  Arab  writers.  Three  hun- 
dred steps  (where  there  is  now  an  inclined  plane) 
were  supposed  to  lead  to  the  bottom;  the  well  itself 
was  in  two  divisions,  with  a  reservoir  in  the  middle; 
the  water  was  raised  by  oxen  in  the  ordinary  manner, 
first  from  the  well  to  the  reservoir,  then  from  the 
reservoir  to  the  level  of  the  Citadel. 

The  minister  who  built  both  the  Citadel  and  the 
new  walls  of  Cairo  is  a  figure  of  some  interest.  His 
name  is  Turkish,  and  means  "  Black  Bird  ";  he  was 
the  slave  and  afterwards  the  freedman  of  either 
Saladin  or  Shirguh.  When  the  former  obtained 
control  of  Cairo,  Karakush  was  given  command  of 
the  guards  of  the  palace  where  the  Fatimide  Caliph 
still  retained  some  shadowy  authority.  On  the  death 
of  al-Adid  in  1171  he  was  still  in  control  of  the 
palace,  and  adopted  some  severe  measures  towards 
the  surviving  Fatimides.     In  11 75  he  was  entrusted 

[8s] 


7"^  Kf\£A^('OAJlM^ 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

by  his  master  with  the  double  task  of  refortifying 
Cairo  and  building  the  Citadel,  while  uniting  all 
three  parts  of  the  city,  Fostat,  Cairo  and  the  Citadel, 
by  a  wall.  This  scheme  in  its  entirety  was  never 
accomplished.  In  1188  he  was  summoned  by  Sala- 
din  to  Acre  to  settle  the  question  whether  it  should  be 
destroyed  or  not;  he  decided  for  the  latter  alterna- 
tive, was  made  governor  of  the  place,  and  rebuilt  the 
walls.  The  next  year  he  had  to  stand  a  siege,  and 
two  years  later,  when  Acre  was  retaken,  he  was  made 
captive  to  be  ransomed  by  Saladin.  After  the  death 
of  the  great  Sultan  he  inherited  the  confidence  of  his 
successor,  and  in  1194  was  even  appointed  regent 
during  the  Sultan's  absence  from  Egypt,  and  on  the 
same  Sultan's  death  became  regent  during  the 
minority  of  his  son.  For  a  post  of  this  importance 
he  does  not  appear  to  have  possessed  the  necessary 
qualifications,  and  was  unable  either  to  maintain  him- 
self in  power,  or  to  prevent  his  charge  being  dis- 
placed by  his  great-uncle,  Saladin's  brother.  Be- 
sides various  buildings  and  engineering  works 
designed  by  him,  his  name  was  perpetuated  by  a 
quarter  of  Cairo,  Harat  Karakush,  situated  outside 
the  Futuh  Gate.  Owing  to  the  vehement  hatred  of  a 
scribe  belonging  to  one  of  the  rival  parties,  the 
memory  of  Karakush  was  blackened  by  a  virulent 
pamphlet  in  which  he  was  made  responsible  for  a 
string  of  decisions  ludicrous  for  their  folly  and  in- 
justice, so  that  his  name  has  become  proverbial  for 
the  Unjust  Judge.  The  confidence  placed  in  him 
by  such  a  man  as  Saladin  is  of  itself  sufficient  to  dis- 

[86] 


THE   AYYUBID    PERIOD 

pose  of  these  slanders,  the  piquancy  of  which  has 
caused  them  to  survive  in  a  marvellous  fashion. 
English  readers  w^ho  wish  to  know  their  character 
will  find  them  in  a  work  bearing  the  name  of  A. 
Hanauer,  called  "  Tales  Told  in  Palestine." 

After  Saladin's  death  the  work  on  the  Citadel 
appears  to  have  ceased,  to  be  resumed  by  al-Kamilin 
1027.  In  this  year  the  Sultan  definitely  abandoned 
the  old  Vizier's  Palace  and  moved  into  a  new  palace 
built  in  the  southern  enclosure,  while  the  market  for 
horses,  camels  and  asses  was  transferred  to  Rumailah 
(sometimes  called  Place  Mohammed  Ali),  below  the 
city;  between  this  place  and  the  Citadel  were  built 
the  royal  stables  which  had  a  secret  communication 
with  the  Palace.  In  the  Palace  jtself  the  Sultan  con- 
structed a  hall  of  justice  called  Iwan,  a  Ijbrajy  and 
a  nias-que.  A  celestial  globe  belonging  to  al-Kamil's 
library  is  still  extant  in  the  Museo  Borgia  of  Velletri, 
though  the  process  whereby  it  came  into  Italian 
hands  is  uncertain.  None  of  this  sovereign's  work 
otherwise  remains. 

Of  the  Citadel  of  al-Kamil  nothing  is  left  at 
the  present  time  beyond  the  location  of  the  gates, 
which  has  never  varied.  Al-Malik  al-Sahih  aban- 
doned the  Citadel  of  Saladin  for  a  citadel  on  the 
island  Raudah  which  he  had  built.  The  first  Mame- 
luke Sultan  Aibek  returned  to  the  Citadel  of  the 
Mountain,  but  does  not  appear  to  have  built  there 
afresh.  On  the  other  hand  the  enterprising  Rukn 
al-din  Baibars  built  in  the  Citadel  of  the  Mountain 
the  "  House  of  Gold  "  with  two  towers,  crowned  by 

[  87  ] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

a  cupola  supported  by  pillars  of  coloured  marble, 
and  further  a  great  audience  room  for  the  hearing  of 
cases.  The  tower  near  the  Karafah  (or  Eastern) 
Gate  was  by  this  Sultan  assigned  to  the  Caliph  as  his 
residence;  at  a  later  period  the  Caliphs  were  re- 
moved from  the  Citadel  and  lodged  in  the  Kabsh 
Palace.  The  Sultan  Kalajun  added  a  cupola  on  the 
"  Red  Palace,"  said  to  be  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
world.  It  rested  on  ninety-four  pillars  outside  the 
peristyles.  These  peristyles  were  frescoed  with  rep- 
resentations of  the  fortresses  in  the  possession  of  the 
Sultan,  with  all  their  natural  surroundings.  He 
also  built  a  house  for  the  Viceroy,  an  official  who 
acted  for  the  Sultan  during  his  absence. 

A  greater  builder  than  any  of  his  predecessors  was 
Mohammed,  son  of  Kala'un,  known  as_al:Nasi^r;  he 
even  added  four  or  five  new  quarters  to  the  original 
environment  of  the  Fatimide  city,  besides  building 
a  vast  number  of  bridges,  canals,  mosques,  etc.  It 
has  been  observed  that  the  greater  number  of  prod- 
ucts of  Saracenic  art  to  be  found  in  European 
Museums  bear  the  name  of  this  Sultan,  and  so  ema- 
nated from  his  time.  The  Mameluke  architecture 
dates  from  him.  Among  the  monuments  that  bear 
his  name  we  include  those  that  were  erected  by  his 
emirs.  He  so  thoroughly  rebuilt  the  Citadel  that 
with  the  exception  of  the  actual  lines  little  of  the 
work  of  his  predecessors  remained  after  him. 

The  Mosque  of  the  Sultan  Nasir  stands  in  the  cen- 
tral court  of  the  Citadel,  and  in  plan  is  approxi- 
mately square.     An  arcade  runs  round  the  whole  of 

[88] 


THE   AYYUBID    PERIOD 

the  interior,  having  four  rows  of  columns  on  the  east, 
and  two  upon  each  of  the  other  sides.     In  the  centre. 
of  the  eastern  arcade  and  over  the  Kiblah  the  pillars  | 
are  replaced  by  ten  granite  monoliths  of  very  large  I 
size;  these  columns  supported  the  magnificent  dome  1 
described   by   Makrizi,   which   fell   in    1522.     The 
dome  columns  are  surmounted  by  arches  composed  of 
alternate  red  and  white  stones,  and  above  these  is  an 
inscription  upon  a  broad  wooden  band,  which  runs 
round  the  base  of  the  dome.     The  smaller  pillars  of 
the  arcades  all  exist,  with  the  exception  of  five  on  the 
western  side,  which,  with  the  arches  above  them,  have 
completely    disappeared.     The    square    pillars    of 
rubble  masonry  which  have  taken  their  place  are 
modern  work.     The  floor  was  originally  pj^d  with 
marble^  and  the  ceilings  illuminaJtied_^ith  gold.    The 
Kiblah  and  the  minarets  were  formerly  covered  with 
green  faience.     It  was  begun  in  13 18  and  rebuilt  in  / 

1334- 
Apparently  the  revenues  of  the  mosque  which  were 

originally  very  large  were  gradually  absorbed  by 
various  governors,  and  the  building  fell  into  ruin 
about  the  time  of  the  Turkish  occupation.  For  a 
considerable  period  it  was  used  as  a  prison,  and  dur- 
ing the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  a  mili- 
tary storehouse.  High  walls  of  rubble  masonry 
were  built  between  the  pillars  in  order  to  divide  the 
space  into  compartments  suitable  for  prison  or  store 
purposes.  Shortly  after  the  British  occupation  it 
was  cleared  by  order  of  Major  C.  M.  Watson. 
The  chief  work  of  the  Sultan  Nasir  on  the  Citadel 

[89] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

was  the  Iwan,  or  Palace,  occupying  the  place  at  pres- 
,.  ent  covered  by  the  Mosque  of  Mohammed  Ali.  It 
was  a  great  hall  rebuilt  by  Nasir  after  two  of  his  pred- 
ecessors, very  high,  long  and  wide,  and  containing 
the  royal  throne.  A  magnificent  cupola  which 
crowned  it  fell  in  1522.  Later  visitors  speak  of 
the  dome  as  being  still  supported  by  thirty-four  col- 
umns of  marble  of  prodigious  width  and  height,  be- 
ing at  least  forty-five  feet  between  base  and  capital. 

Of  a  palace  called  the  Parti-coloured  Palace,  a 
few  remains  were  left  when  the  Mosque  of  Moham- 
med Ali  was  built;  in  those  ruins  there  are  to  be 
found  black  and  yellow  stones,  and  the  juxtaposition 
of  these  gave  its  name  to  the  building.  It  comprised, 
it  is  said,  three  palaces  in  one.  During  the  Turkish 
1  period  this  Parti-coloured  Palace  served  to  give 
i  shelter  to  the  workmen  engaged  in  making  the  car- 
pets to  be  sent  to  Meccah.  Powerful  descriptions 
are  given  by  travellers  of  the  enormous  eminence  on 
which  this  palace  was  built,  and  the  magnificent  view 
of  Cairo  which  it  commanded. 

The  Karamaidan,  though  it  existed  from  the  time 
of  Ahmad  Ibn  Tulun,  was  to  some  extent  the  work 
of  Nasir,  as  he  built  a  wall  round  it,  had  arrange- 
ments made  for  a  supply  of  water,  and  planted  trees; 
he  regularly  used  the  place  himself  as  a  recreation 
ground.  Besides  this  he  had  constructed  a  vast  sys- 
tem of  aqueducts  for  supplying  the  Citadel  with 
water. 

After  the  time  of  al-Nasir  the  Sultans  gradually 
abandoned  the  Citadel  itself  and  took  up  their  abode 

[90] 


THE    AYYUBID    PERIOD 

in  the  lower  parts  called  the  Hosh  or  "  pens  "  and  the 
mews. 

The  Sultans  who  reigned  between  the  time  of  Mo- 
hammed al-Nasir  and  the  Ottoman  occupation  most 
of  them  did  something  for  the  Citadel  in  the  way  of 
either  restoration  or  fresh  building,  without,  how- 
ever, seriously  altering  the  work  of  that  ruler.  Vari- 
ous inscriptions  have  been  found  by  Casanova  and 
van  Berchem  which  refer  to  these  restorations.  A 
picture  preserved  in  the  Louvre  represents  the  last 
Mameluke  Sultan  but  one  (Kansuh  al-Ghuri)  sitting 
in  the  garden  which  he  had  laid  out  and  receiving 
the  Venetian  ambassador. 

In  the  Turkish  period  the  Janissaries  occupied  the 
military  citadel,  while  the  Pashas  were  installed  in 
the  palaces  at  the  foot.  The  grand  buildings  of 
Nasir  and  his  successors  were  allowed  to  fall  into 
ruin,  and  indeed,  according  to  a  French  traveller  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  the  Egyptian  Pashas  were 
expressly  forbidden  by  their  Turkish  masters  to  hold 
their  audiences  in  the  Great  Hall,  lest  the  magnifi- 
cence thereof  should  inspire  them  with  the  desire  to 
become  independent.  Many  beautiful  marbles  were 
removed  by  the  Sultans  from  the  buildings  of  the 
Citadel  and  taken  to  Constantinople;  the  Turkish 
conqueror  of  Egypt,  Selim,  dismantled  some  of  the 
edifices  immediately.  The  Mosque  of  Nasir  being 
neglected,  other  mosques  were  built  on  the  Citadel 
for  the  use  of  the  Janissaries,  and  the  governors  con- 
tinued to  build  themselves  palaces  thereon.  Much 
damage  is  said  to  have  been  done  to  the  buildings 

[91] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

which  remained  on  the  Citadel  at  the  time  of  the 
French  occupation;  but  the  Citadel  received  a  new 
lease  of  life  when  Mohammed  Ali  built  his  mosque 
and  his  palace  there;  and  though  the  ruined  Mosque 
of  al-Nasir  and  the  much-frequented  Mosque  of 
Mohammed  Ali  are  the  only  show  buildings  that 
now  remain  on  the  Citadel,  its  military  importance 
is  still  considerable. 

We  now  return  to  a  summary  of  the  history  of  the 
Ayyubids,  as  the  dynasty  inaugurated  by  Saladin  is 
called,  after  the  father  of  its  founder.  It  held  the 
throne  of  Egypt  for  eighty-three  years,  from  1169  to 
1252,  and  consisted  of  nine  sovereigns;  but  other 
branches  of  the  family  ruled  simultaneously,  and  for 
some  time  after  the  power  of  Egyptian  Ayyubids 
had  fallen,  in  various  parts  of  Syria  and  Arabia. 
Perhaps  during  the  greater  part  of  this  time  Damas- 
cus rather  than  Cairo  would  have  been  called  the 
chief  city  of  the  Empire;  for  Saladin  during  the  life 
of  Nur  al-din  recognised  the  latter's  suzerainty,  while 
after  his  death  he  contrived  to  gain  possession  of  his 
empire  and  to  extend  it  by  fresh  conquests  in  order  to 
bring  a  united  Islam  to  deal  with  the  Prankish  in- 
vaders of  the  East.  In  the  Mameluke  period  the 
governors  of  the  Syrian  cities  were  the  "  Deputies " 
of  the  Egyptian  Sultan;  but  in  Ayyubid  times  this 
relation  did  not  yet  exist. 

Although  the  greater  part  of  Saladin's  time  was 
spent  in  Syria,  he  found  time  to  arrange  for  the  con- 
struction in  Cairo  of  a  number  of  buildings  religious 
or  philanthropic  in  character.     One  of  these  was  a 

[92] 


DOCK    OF   A    MOSgUE,   CAIRO. 


THE   AYYUBID    PERIOD 

college  or  school  (madrasah)  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  grave  of  al-Shafi'i,  known  as  the  Imam,  or 
founder  of  an  orthodox  system  of  Law.  Provision 
was  made  in  this  school  for  teaching  that  great  jur- 
ist's doctrine,  it  being  of  importance  that  facilities 
should  be  provided  for  bringing  Egypt  back  to  ortho- 
doxy after  so  many  years  of  Fatimide  government. 
This  college  was  of  enormous  size,  equal,  according 
to  one  enthusiastic  visitor,  to  a  town;  the  site  on 
which  it  was  built  had  previously  been  a  prison.  Sa- 
ladin's  successor  apparently  made  some  additions, 
but  in  Makrizi's  time  it  was  in  ruins,  and  in  1761 
Abd  al-Rahman  Ketkhuda,  whose  name  has  already 
met  us  in  connection  with  al-Ahzar,  pulled  down 
what  was  left  of  it,  and  built  on  the  site  the  present 
Mosque  of  Shafi'i.  Another  prison  which  had  oc- 
cupied part  of  the  old  Fatimide  Palace  was  turned 
by  him  into  a  hospital;  and — a  yet  greater  innovation 
— a  house  called  after  a  former  owner  Sa'  id  al-Su' 
ada,  west  of  the  old  Avenue  of  the  Two  Palaces,  was 
turned  into  a  hospice  (khanagah)  for  poor  ascetics. 
At  a  later  time,  as  we  shall  see,  the  ideas  of  mosque, 
school  and  hospice  all  became  confused;  but  in  Sa- 
ladin's  time  they  were  still  distinct,  and  the  appur- 
tenances of  a  mosque,  a  minaret,  a  pulpit  and  a  wash- 
ing place,  were  added  to  the  hospice  in  much  later 
times.  It  also  served  as  a  final  resting-place  for  many 
of  the  saints. 

A  visitor  to  Cairo  in  Saladin's  time  has  in  his 
diary  left  us  his  impressions  of  the  place — the  Span- 
iard Ibn  Jubair.     The  Citadel  and  the  surround- 

[9S] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

ing  wall  had  been  begun  in  his  time;  and  the  in- 
tentions of  the  Sultan  in  the  matter  were  well  known. 
What  interested  hirti  most  in  the  city  or  its  neighbour- 
hood was  the  great  number  of  mausoleums  contain- 
ing the  remains  of  members  of  the  Prophet's  house, 
men  and  women,  companions  of  the  Prophet,  jurists 
and  saints.  Over  the  sanctuary  which  contained  the 
head  of  Husain  he  is  ecstatic;  he  confesses  that  no 
words  can  give  an  adequate  description  of  its  mag- 
nificence. But  he  has  a  good  deal  to  say,  too,  of  the 
arrangements  of  Saladin's  School  and  especially  his 
Hospital;  with  its  separate  establishments  for  men 
and  women,  with  beds  provided  with  coverings,  all 
under  the  management  of  a  custodian  with  a  stafif  of 
assistants;  while  hard  by  is  an  asylum  for  the  insane, 
who,  too,  have  their  comfort  thoroughly  studied,  but 
whose  windows  have  to  be  secured  with  iron  grat- 
ings. No  detail  in  his  description  is  more  striking 
than  the  apparently  speedy  recovery  of  Fostat  from 
its  ashes.  The  traces  of  the  great  fire  were  indeed 
apparent,  but  building  was  proceeding  continuously. 
Saladin  died  in  Damascus  at  the  beginning  of 
March,  1193;  he  had  made  Egypt  once  more  nomi- 
nally dependent  on  Baghdad,  but  had  in  reality  sub- 
stituted a  new  dynasty  for  the  efifete  Fatimide  family, 
whose  Palace  he  had  ruined.  The  reign  of  his  son 
and  successor  was  disturbed  by  family  disputes, 
which  for  a  time  were  settled  by  the  division  of  Sa- 
ladin's empire;  one  son  (Aziz)  retaining  Egypt, 
while  another  (Afdal)  reigned  in  Syria.  The 
former,  however,  had  to  submit  to  the  direction  of 

[96] 


THE   AYYUBID    PERIOD 

his  uncle  Adil,  who  at  the  death  of  Aziz  after  five 
years'  reign,  was  easily  able  in  1199  to  supplant  his 
infant  son. 

The  reign  of  Aziz  is  notable  in  the  history  of 
Cairo  for  the  commencement  of  a  residential  quarter 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  Great  Canal,  the  site  of  Euro- 
pean Cairo  of  our  time.  Ibn  Jubair  speaks  with 
great  admiration  of  the  embankment  of  the  Nile  by 
Saladin,  of  course  before  the  river  had  shifted  its 
bed  towards  the  west.  The  region  west  of  the  Bab 
al-Sha'riyyah  and  north  of  the  present  Ezbekiyyeh 
quarter  was  at  that  time  a  plantation  of  date-palms; 
the  Sultan  Aziz,  in  the  year  1197,  ordered  these 
palms  to  be  cut  down,  and  an  exercising  ground  to 
be  laid  out  where  they  had  stood.  This  proceeding 
led  to  the  adjoining  land  being  parcelled  out  and 
built  on.  The  now  fashionable  region  further  south 
was  not  occupied  till  Mameluke  days.  Eight  months 
of  the  preceding  year  are  said  to  have  been  occupied 
by  this  prince  in  a  futile  attempt  at  treasure-hunting 
in  the  pyramids  of  Gizeh;  after  a  time  it  was  known 
that  the  cost  of  undoing  the  ancient  builders'  work 
was  greater  than  the  value  of  the  expected  treasure. 

The  Sultan  Adil,  like  his  brother  Saladin,  spent 
little  of  his  time  in  Egypt,  where  he  appointed  as  his 
deputy  his  son,  called  al-Kamil.  We  have  seen  how 
this  sovereign  completed  the  Citadel  which  his  uncle 
had  begun.  The  transference  thither  of  the  seat  of 
government  led  to  the  south  and  southeast  of  Cairo 
becoming  fashionable  and  populous. 

The  Sultan  Kamil  gave  his  name  to  the  Kamiliy- 

[97] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

yah  School,  in  the  Nahassin  Street,  built  by  him  in 
the  year  1225;  it  was  long  known  as  the  House  of 
Tradition  (ddr  alhadtth)^  and  was  said  to  be  the 
second  edifice  with  that  title,  the  first  being  one  built 
in  Damascus.  From  its  erection  perhaps  we  are  to 
infer  that  orthodox  books  of  Tradition  were  not  yet 
studied  in  al-Azhar.  Like  so  many  of  these  pious 
edifices  a  fanciful  account  had  to  be  given  of  the 
source  of  the  funds  employed  in  its  erection.  The 
workmen  who  dug  the  foundations  were  fortunate 
enough  to  discover  a  golden  image,  which,  melted 
down,  served  to  defray  all  expenses!  In  Mameluke 
times  it  was  crowded  out  by  a  number  of  religious 
and  educational  edifices  erected  in  the  immediate 
neighbourhood,  and  in  Makrizi's  time  instruction  in 
Tradition  had  already  ceased  to  be  given  in  it,  and  it 
was  turned  into  an  ordinary  mosque. 

Kamil's  successor  Adil  11.  reigned  only  two  years; 
he  was  superseded  by  his  brother  Salih,  called 
also  Najm  al-din  Ayyub,  who  reigned  nine  years 
(1240- 1 249).  His  reign  was  notable  for  several 
events. 

Like  previous  sovereigns  he  took  to  purchasing 
slaves  of  various  nationalities,  suitable  to  form  a 
bodyguard,  and  at  first  housed  them  in  the  Citadel, 
or  in  Cairo  itself.  Like  the  old  Praetorians  of  Bagh- 
dad, their  disregard  for  the  rights  of  ordinary  citi- 
zens made  them  a  source  of  annoyance  to  the  popu- 
lace; and  just  as  one  of  the  Baghdad  Caliphs  had 
built  a  city,  Samarra,  to  keep  his  praetorians  at  a  dis- 
tance from  the  metropolis,  so  the  Sultan  Kamil  built 
a  fortress  on  the  Island  of  Raudah  to  hold  his  Mame- 

[98] 


THE   AYYUBID    PERIOD 

lukes.  These  troops  thence  got  the  name  Mame- 
lukes of  the  Nile  (or  the  Sea,  as  the  Arabs  ordinarily 
call  the  river  of  Egypt).  The  site  of  these  barracks 
was  chosen  not  only  with  a  view  to  the  comfort  of  the 
Cairenes;  with  vessels  at  their  disposal  the  Mame- 
lukes were  constantly  ready  to  descend  the  Nile  in 
case  of  a  Prankish  invasion.  Our  chroniclers  regale 
us  with  a  story  how  a  party  of  deserters  from  the 
fortress  of  Raudah  came  in  the  desert  across  an  aban- 
doned city,  with  streets  and  houses  and  cisterns  con- 
taining water  that  was  sweeter  than  honey;  green 
marble  was  the  material  chiefly  used  in  the  construc- 
tion of  the  town.  Coins  were  found  in  some  of  the 
shops,  with  legends  in  an  ancient  script;  the  archaeol- 
ogists to  whom  they  were  shown  read  thereon  the 
names  of  Moses,  on  whom  be  peace!  Like  the  cities 
of  the  Takla-makan  desert  which  have  been  un- 
earthed in  our  day,  it  had  been  covered  with  sand; 
at  times,  however,  the  winds  uncover  such  buried 
habitations  of  men,  and  this  had  occurred  in  the  year 
1244,  when  the  Mamelukes  deserted;  another  wind 
then  covered  the  city  as  it  was  before,  and  those  that 
looked  for  it  could  not  find  it. 

The  erection  of  the  barracks  on  the  Island  of 
Raudah  led  to  the  building  of  more  houses  on  the 
western  bank  of  the  Great  Canal;  and  the  Bab  al- 
Khark  (of  which  the  name  survives  as  Bab  al- 
Khalk)  formed  the  head  of  the  avenue  which  led 
from  the  city  to  the  new  fortification.  The  heaps  of 
ruins  which  are  to  the  left  of  the  traveller  from 
Cairo  to  Old  Cairo  belong  to  a  period  when  several 
causes  led  to  this  being  a  fashionable  quarter. 

[99] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

Relics  of  buildings  by  this  Sultan  exist  in  the  shape 
of  a  mausoleum  and  a  school,  both  in  the  old  avenue 
Between  the  Two  Palaces.  Their  site  is  where  part 
of  the  ancient  Eastern  Palace  stood,  and  indeed  in- 
cluded the  famous  gate  of  the  palace  called  Bab  al- 
Zuhumah,  supposed  to  be  named  after  the  "  odour 
of  cooking."  On  May  i6,  1242,  the  demolition  of 
the  older  structure  commenced,  and  in  two  years'  time 
the  school  was  ready.  Chairs  were  provided  in  it— 
for  the  first  time — for  the  four  orthodox  systems  of 
Law,  and  this  principle  continued  to  be  followed  in 
the  colleges  built  by  Egyptian  Sultans,  though  it 
appears  to  have  been  in  the  first  Mameluke  period 
that  a  Sultan  cynically  confessed  that  the  public 
maintenance  of  four  systems  was  to  give  the  sover- 
eign the  better  chance  of  getting  his  rulings  au- 
thorised. The  practice  of  having  the  separate  sys- 
tems taught  in  annexes  to  the  four  liwans,  or  cloisters, 
gives  such  buildings  a  shape  approximating  to  the 
cruciform. 

Architecturally,  Herz  Bey  tells  us,  the  College  of 
the  Sultan  Salih  is  of  interest  for  the  development  of 
the  facade.  In  the  Fatimide  period  the  facade  be- 
gan to  be  ornamented  by  a  niche  over  the  door,  which 
served  no  other  purpose  than  that  of  decoration.  In 
the  Mameluke  period  it  develops  into  a  series  of  win- 
dows. The  College  of  Salih  ofTers  the  earliest 
example  of  the  introduction  of  a  window,  whereby 
the  niche  is  given  a  definite  purpose.  In  the  facade 
of  the  mausoleum  of  the  same  sovereign  the  niches 
extend  to  the  full  height  of  the  wall. 

[  100] 


,MO:mU  I'.   OV    sri.lAN    HIHAKS,   I.AIKO. 


THE   AYYUBID    PERIOD 

The  building  originally  consisted  of  two  schools, 
separated  by  a  long  passage  to  which  access  was  given 
by  the  gate  under  the  minaret;  this  was  of  iron,  orna- 
mented with  a  marble  slab,  bearing  the  name  Salihiy- 
yah.  Each  of  the  schools  consisted  of  an  open  court, 
surrounded  by  four  cloisters.  Of  the  southern  school 
nothing  now  remains  except  the  fagade.  Of  the 
northern  there  remains  the  western  cloister  and  part 
of  the  wall  belonging  to  the  eastern.  The  old  pass- 
age has  now  become  a  street. 

This  school  was  at  times  used  as  a  court  of  justice. 
We  have  a  record  of  a  scene  occurring  in  the  year 
1521,  in  the  early  days  of  Turkish  rule,  when  on  the 
occasion  of  festivities  in  Cairo,  owing  to  the  victories 
of  the  Sultan  Sulaiman,  some  Christians  who  had  got 
drunk  in  honour  thereof  and  indulged  in  unseemly 
language  were  taken  there  to  be  tried.  Two  of  the 
judges  decided  that  though  they  might  not  be  exe- 
cuted they  ought  to  be  scourged  for  drunkenness; 
two  other  judges  raised  a  protest  against  this,  and 
thereupon  the  mob  interfered,  and  nearly  stoned  the 
judges.  A  party  of  Janissaries  rushed  to  the  rescue, 
seized  the  Christians,  and  cut  two  of  them  in  pieces; 
a  third  turned  Moslem,  and  so  with  difficulty  saved 
his  skin.  The  remains  of  the  murdered  Christians 
were  then  burned  by  the  fanatical  mob,  who  tore 
down  beams  from  the  shops  for  the  purpose. 

The  mausoleum  of  the  Sultan  Salih,  which  adjoins 
his  school,  is  the  first  of  a  series  of  mosque-tombs 
built  for  themselves  by  the  Egyptian  Sultans,  as 
though  the  air  which  had  inspired  the  erection  of  the 

[103] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

Pyramids  were  still  suggesting  some  similar  ideas. 
It  was  built  seven  years  later  than  the  school,  to  the 
northern  section  of  which  it  is  attached  by  an  open- 
ing made  in  the  wall  of  the  western  cloister.  The 
influence  of  the  West  is,  Herz  Bey  tells  us,  exceed- 
ingly apparent  in  this  mausoleum. 

The  Sultan  Salih  died  in  Mansurah,  whither  he 
had  gone  after  the  seizure  of  Damietta  by  the 
Crusaders  under  St.  Louis,  in  order  to  organise  a 
force  to  deal  with  the  invader.  He  had  gone  thither 
while  suffering  from  an  ulcer,  believed  to  be  his  pun- 
ishment for  the  murder  of  his  brother  and  predeces- 
sor on  the  throne.  According  to  a  custom  of  which 
most  monarchies  furnish  illustrations,  his  death  was 
concealed  until  his  son  Turanshah,  then  at  Hisn 
Kaifa,  was  safely  seated  on  the  vacant  throne;  the 
widowed  queen  meanwhile  undertook  the  manage- 
ment of  affairs:  it  was  given  out  that  the  Sultan  was 
still  ailing,  physicians  continued  to  pay  their  visits 
and  report  on  his  progress,  and  despatches  continued 
to  be  issued  in  his  name.  Turanshah's  reign  began 
brilliantly,  owing  rather  to  the  valour  and  skill  of 
the  Emir  Bukn  al-din  Baibars  with  the  Mamelukes, 
than  to  his  own.  The  Christian  fleet  was  destroyed, 
and  the  retreat  of  the  Crusaders  cut  off.  The  French 
King  was  himself  taken  prisoner,  to  be  released  after- 
wards for  a  great  ransom.  Damietta  itself  was 
restored  to  the  Egyptian  Sultan,  and  lest  it  should 
again  harbour  an  invader,  utterly  destroyed.  All 
that  was  left  of  it  for  the  time  was  a  group  of  fisher- 
men's huts.    But  Turanshah  offended  the  Mamelukes 

[  104] 


THE   AYYUBID    PERIOD 

of  his  father  by  preferring  his  own  satellites  above 
them,  and  committed  the  still  greater  error  of  under- 
rating the  ability  of  his  father's  widow,  Shajar  al- 
durr,  who  proved  a  formidable  adversary.  This 
woman,  reviving  the  traditions  of  old  Egyptian  and 
Ethiopian  queens,  replied  to  the  threats  of  her  stepson 
by  organising  a  conspiracy  among  his  father's  serv- 
ants. An  assault  was  made  upon  him  at  a  banquet 
given  at  Mansurah.  From  the  sword  he  fled  into  a 
wooden  refuge,  soon  to  be  devoured  by  flame;  and 
thence  he  flung  himself  into  the  water,  where  he  was 
ultimately  dispatched.  His  reign  lasted  forty  days 
only,  and  with  its  end  the  Ayyubid  period  practically 
closed. 

The  great  relic  of  the  Ayyubid  period  is  then  the 
Citadel;  from  the  time  of  Saladin  till  the  nineteenth 
century  the  history  of  Egypt  centres  round  that  of  the 
fortress  which  commanded  Cairo.  The  religious 
importance  of  the  Ayyubid  dynasty  is  also  very  great. 
By  restoring  Moslem  orthodoxy  in  Egypt,  they  fitted 
that  country  to  serve  as  the  headquarters  of  Islam 
during  the  centuries  which  elapsed  between  the  fall 
of  Baghdad  and  the  consolidation  of  the  power  of  the 
Ottomans.  They  made  Cairo  the  University  of 
Islam,  and  that  position  it  holds  to  this  day.  Polit- 
ically they  accustomed  the  people  of  Egypt  to  gov- 
ernment by  aliens  and  Turks,  taking  on  therein  a 
tradition  which  had  commenced  before  the  Fatimide 
dynasty  had  begun. 

Historically  their  importance  otherwise  is  to  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  they  bore  the  brunt  of  the 

[los] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

Crusades;  to  recover  the  cities  which  the  Prankish 
invader  had  taken  was  the  problem  which  they  had 
to  face,  and  before  the  dynasty  was  over  this  problem 
had  practically  been  solved.    The   founder  of  the 
line,  Saladin,  towers  far  above  the  others;  the  admi- 
rable biography  of  him  by  Mr.  Lane  Poole  enables 
the  general  reader  to  estimate  him  aright.     When 
he  first  took  part  in  affairs  there  was  a  prospect  of 
Egypt  being  annexed  to  the  Prankish  Empire,  and 
indeed  we  find  the  Pranks  in  actual  occupation  of 
Cairo.     Aided  partly  by  circumstances,  such  as  the 
dissensions  of  the  Prankish  chiefs,  and  the  want  of 
suitable  successors  to  the  throne  of  Jerusalem,  but 
chiefly  through  his  own  ability  as  a  statesman  and 
general,  Saladin  was  able  to  reconquer  Jerusalem, 
and  to  write  the  death-warrant  of  the  Prankish  oc- 
cupation of  the  nearest  East.     Al-Kamil  was,  by  the 
invasion  of  Egypt  in  the  years  1218  to  1221,  brought 
into  greater  straits  than  Saladin  had  been.     But  the 
loss  of  Damietta,  after  its  long  and  heroic  resistance, 
was  compensated  in  the  following  year  by  the  Sul- 
tan's well-planned  and  successful  resistance  to  the 
Crusaders'  expedition  against  Cairo,  which  ended  in 
the  Pranks  being  driven  from  Egypt.     The  Sultan 
on  the  occasion  of  his  brilliant  victory  showed  that 
the  chivalrous  spirit  which  sheds  a  halo  round  the 
memory   of   Saladin   was   in   his   nature   too.    The 
heroism  of  his  successor  Salih  is  sufficiently  indicated 
by  the  circumstances  of  his  end.     Pew,  if  any,  of  the 
dynasties  of  Islam  have  in  so  short  a  time  brought 
to  the  front  so  many  capable  rulers. 

[106] 


THE    FIRST    MAMELUKE    SOVEREIGNS 

'FTER  the  murder  of  Turanshah  the  Emirs 
accepted  the  government  of  the  woman 
who  had  organised  the  coup,  and  she  was 
enthroned  in  the  same  style  as  male  sover- 
eigns, except  that  a  curtain  separated  her  from  the 
ministers,  who  kissed  the  ground  as  their  act  of 
homage.  To  the  rule  of  infants  the  Islamic  peoples 
were  accustomed:  but  it  was  to  them  a  great  rarity  to 
hear  the  preachers  in  the  Mosques  name  after  the 
Caliph  "  the  wife  of  the  Sultan  Salih,  the  Queen  of 
the  Moslems,  the  Protectress  of  the  world  and  of  the 
faith,  the  screened  and  veiled  Mother  of  the  deceased 
Khalil  " — for  in  that  name  she  chose  to  reign,  since 
her  own  name,  "  Pearl-tree,"  too  obviously  suggested 
the  slave-girl — both  male  and  female  slaves  being 
commonly  called  after  gems. 

In  spite  of  her  eminent  qualifications  for  the  sove- 
reignty, she  could  not  long  resist  the  popular  objec- 
tions to  a  woman  holding  such  a  post:  and  the  Caliph 
himself  sent  from  Baghdad  to  tell  the  Egyptians  that 
if  they  had  not  among  them  a  man  qualified  to  be 
Sultan,  they  might  apply  to  him,  and  he  would  send 
them    someone.    After    three    months'    sovereignty 

[  107] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

she  consented  to  a  compromise  whereby  she  abdi- 
cated, only,  however,  to  continue  to  rule  as  the  wife 
of  Izz  al-din  Aibek,  whom  she  had  employed  as  chief 
minister.  This  person  had  originally  been  a  slave 
purchased  by  the  Sultan  Salih,  and  enrolled  in  the 
force  of  Raudah  Island,  presently  manumitted  and 
promoted  to  high  office. 

The  praetorians  were,  however,  not  yet  accustomed 
to  seeing  one  of  their  number  Sultan :  they  clamoured 
for  a  member  of  the  Ayyubid  family.  Aibek,  per- 
haps by  the  direction  of  his  wife,  sent  for  such  a 
person,  a  youth  of  tender  years,  who  agreed  to  be 
joint  Sultan  with  Aibek,  the  names  of  both  figuring 
on  coins  and  being  recited  in  the  public  prayer;  but 
the  husband  of  Shajar  al-durr  was  resolved  to  be 
sole  master,  and  utilised  the  treasures  at  his  disposal 
for  the  purchase  of  armed  men.  When  sufficiently 
strong,  he  entrapped  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  oppo- 
sition in  the  Citadel,  had  him  assassinated  and  his 
head  flung  to  his  friends  in  the  Rumailah  Place. 
The  rest  of  the  opposition  fled  into  Syria,  among 
them  two  men,  afterwards  prominent  as  Egyptian 
Sultans,  Baibars  and  Kala'un.  The  Ayyubid  prince 
was  then  imprisoned,  and  Aibek  reigned  alone. 

He  now  considered  himself  strong  enough  to  dis- 
place his  wife,  Shajar  al-durr,  and  sent  to  solicit  the 
hand  of  a  daughter  of  Badr  al-din  Lulu,  prince  of 
Mausil.  This  proceeding  was  followed  by  violent 
recriminations  on  the  part  of  the  ex-Queen,  to  escape 
which  Aibek  abandoned  the  Citadel  and  went  to  re- 
side in  the  new  quarter  called  Luk,  which,  in  conse- 

[io8] 


THE    FIRST    MAMELUKE     SOVEREIGNS 

quence  of  the  innovations  of  al-Aziz  and  al-Kamil 
was  springing  up  between  the  Great  Canal  and  the 
Nile.  Shajar  al-durr  contrived,  however,  by  various 
blandishments  to  allure  him  back  to  the  Citadel: 
where  she  had  arranged  that  five  of  her  Byzantine 
eunuchs  should  murder  him  in  his  bath. 

The  tragedy  was  not  yet  finished.  Aibek  had  left 
a  son,  Ali,  by  another  wife,  whom  Shajar  al-durr  had 
forced  him  to  put  away  when  she  raised  him  with 
herself  to  the  throne.  This  son,  having  his  father's 
praetorians  at  his  mercy,  handed  his  stepmother  over 
to  the  tender  mercies  of  his  mother,  who  ordered 
her  handmaids  to  beat  the  fallen  Queen  to  death  with 
their  shoes.  She  was  then  stripped,  dragged  by  the 
feet,  and  flung  into  a  ditch,  where  she  remained  un- 
buried  three  days.  At  the  end  of  this  time  she  was 
taken  out  and  interred  in  the  mausoleum  which  she 
had  built  for  herself,  and  which  still  exists  between 
the  Mashhads  of  Sayyidah  Nafisah  and  Sayyidah 
Sakinah.  M.  van  Berchem  shows  by  the  evidence 
of  an  inscription — in  modern  letters,  but  doubtless 
copied  from  an  older  one — that  this  mausoleum  must 
have  been  built  after  Shajar  al-durr  had  become 
queen,  but  before  she  married  Aibek:  for  among  her 
official  titles  she  is  there  called  Mother  of  Khalil, 
but  not  wife  of  Aibek.  The  present  building  is 
modern,  being  a  restoration  dating  from  the  year 
1873.  It  also  contains  the  tomb  of  one  of  the 
shadowy  Caliphs,  of  whom  we  shall  hear  more.  Her 
death  took  place  April  15,  1257:  she  had  ascended 
the  throne  May  14,  1250. 

[Ill] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

Aibek  is  said  to  have  destroyed  the  barracks  built 
by  his  predecessor  on  Raudah  Island,  and  to  have 
cleared  away  many  dwellings  in  the  parts  of  Cairo 
that  stretch  from  Bab  Zuwaileh  to  the  Citadel,  and 
westward  to  the  Bab  al-Luk.  He  built  a  college  in 
old  Cairo  called  Mu'zziyyah,  after  his  title  Malik 
Mu'izz. 

The  new  Sultan,  who  had  dealt  such  vengeance 
on  his  stepmother,  was  eleven  years  of  age:  a  regent 
had  to  be  appointed,  and  a  Mameluke  of  his  father, 
named  Kotuz,  was  chosen.  The  next  year  Baghdad 
was  taken  by  the  Mongol  Hulagu,  who  now  threat- 
ened to  advance  westward;  and  just  as  it  had  been  the 
business  of  the  Ayyubids  to  arrest  the  progress  of  the 
Crusaders,  so  it  became  that  of  the  Mameluke  dynasty 
to  check  this  more  terrible  enemy.  A  council  was 
held  at  which  the  chief  jurist  of  the  time  declared 
that  the  occasion  called  for  a  man,  and  not  a  child,  to 
be  at  the  head  of  affairs;  and  on  November  4,  1259, 
Ali,  called  al-Mansur,  son  of  Aibek,  was  deposed, 
and  the  regent  installed  Sultan  in  his  place.  Such 
events  were  destined  to  occur  with  great  frequency 
during  this  dynasty,  and  the  fate  of  the  deposed 
monarch  was  ordinarily  unenviable.  In  some  cases, 
as  that  of  Ali,  it  was  lifelong  imprisonment:  some- 
times it  was  honourable  banishment,  and  more  fre- 
quently still  it  was  execution.  For  a  man  to  whom 
allegiance  had  once  been  sworn  could  generally  be 
suspected  of  harbouring  designs  against  his  successor. 

The  command  of  the  forces  was  given  by  the  new 
Sultan  to  Baibars  al-Bundukdari,  an  officer  who  was 

[112] 


THE    FIRST    MAMELUKE     SOVEREIGNS 

credited  with  much  of  the  merit  of  the  great  victory 
over  Louis  IX.  Almost  immediately  after  the  en- 
thronement of  Kotuz  there  arrived  a  missive  from 
Hulagu  couched  in  the  style  of  Sennacherib  of  old; 
and  by  tremendous  efforts,  coupled  with  ruthless  ex- 
tortions, an  army  was  equipped  and  despatched  to 
Syria  to  meet  the  Tartars.  On  September  3,  1260,  a 
battle  was  fought  at  Ain  Jalut,  in  which  the  victory 
remained  with  the  Egyptians.  This  was  presently 
confirmed  by  another  victory,  and  Kotuz  not  only 
repelled  the  Mongol  invasion,  but  secured  for  Egypt 
the  suzerainty  over  the  whole  of  Saladin's  old  em- 
pire. But  on  his  triumphant  return  to  Egypt,  he  was 
attacked  and  slain  by  the  Emir  Baibars,  who  ap- 
proached the  Sultan  ostensibly  to  kiss  his  hand  for 
the  present  of  a  slave  girl.  Since  the  officers  decided 
that  Baibars,  by  way  of  compensation  for  this  act, 
should  be  made  sovereign  in  his  victim's  stead,  it  is 
probable  that  the  assassination  was  the  outcome  of  a 
widespread  conspiracy.  The  contemporary  biog- 
rapher of  Baibars,  who  fills  pages  with  eulogies  of 
his  master's  virtues,  can  only  say  of  this  act  that  there 
happened  what  did  happen.  The  date  is  given  as 
November  21,  1260. 

Baibars  reigned  for  seventeen  years,  and  showed 
great  capacity  as  both  a  warrior  and  administrator, 
though  utterly  unscrupulous  in  his  dealings.  He  re- 
established in  theory,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Caliphate 
of  the  Abbasids  by  recognising  the  claim  of  one  Abu' 
1-Kasim  Ahmad  to  be  the  heir  of  the  Baghdad  poten- 
tates, and  installing  him  in  the  Citadel  as  Caliph  with 

[113] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

the  title  Mustansir.  Mustansir  then  proceeded  to 
confer  on  Baibars  the  title  of  Sultan,  and  invest  him 
with  all  Islamic  lands  and  any  lands  that  might 
afterward  become  Islamic  by  conquest.  The  address 
in  which  this  shadowy  Caliph  instructs  Baibars  in 
his  duties  is  a  curious  document.  It  appears  that 
Baibars  at  one  time  intended  to  restore  his  Caliph 
to  Baghdad,  and  to  equip  him  with  a  force  which 
might  have  been  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  recon- 
quer that  capital.  But  he  was  advised  in  time  not 
to  make  his  creature  powerful  enough  to  become  his 
master,  and  sent  with  him  so  small  a  force  that  he 
was  easily  defeated  and  slain  by  the  troops  of  the 
Mongol  governor  of  Baghdad.  After  his  death  a 
substitute  was  speedily  found  in  another  person  who 
claimed  descent  from  the  Abbasid  family:  but  this 
Caliph  remained  in  Cairo,  and,  though  one  of  his 
successors  was  actually  Sultan  for  a  few  days,  the 
greater  number  of  these  Egyptian  Caliphs  served 
no  other  purpose  than  to  confer  legitimacy  on  their 
Mameluke  masters. 

The  reign  of  Baibars  was  spent  largely  in  success- 
ful wars  against  the  Crusaders,  from  whom  he  took 
many  cities,  notably  Safad,  Caesarea  and  Antioch; 
the  Armenians,  whose  territory  he  repeatedly  in- 
vaded, burning  their  capital  Sis;  and  the  Seljucids 
of  Asia  Minor.  All  these  were  to  some  extent  the 
allies  of  the  Mongols.  He  further  reduced  the  Is- 
ma'ilians,  better  known  as  the  Assassins,  whose  ex- 
istence as  a  community  lasted  on  in  Syria  after  it  had 
practically  come  to  an  end  in  Persia.     He  estab- 

[i'4] 


THE    FIRST    MAMELUKE     SOVEREIGNS 

lished  friendly  relations  with  some  of  the  Christian 
powers  of  Europe,  e.  g.,  the  Emperor  of  Constanti- 
nople, the  King  of  Naples,  and  the  King  of  Castile. 
He  made  Nubia  tributary  to  Egypt,  thereby  extend- 
ing Moslem  arms  further  south  than  they  had  been 
extended  by  any  earlier  sovereign. 

He  was,  as  has  been  noticed,  the  first  sovereign 
who  acknowledged  the  equal  authority  of  the  four 
orthodox  systems  of  law,  and  appointed  judges  be- 
longing to  each  of  them  in  Egypt  and  Syria. 

Two  buildings  in  Cairo  commemorate  the  reign 
of  the  Sultan  Baibars,  whose  title  was  at  first  al- 
Kahir,  and  afterward  al-Zahir.  One  of  these  is  a 
disused  mosque  at  the  end  of  the  Zahir  Street,  which 
leads  out  of  the  Faggalah.  The  materials  employed 
for  this  building  were  largely  taken  from  the  Cru- 
saders' Castle  at  Jaffa,  which  was  seized  by  him  on 
March  7,  1268,  by  surprise,  he  being  supposed  to  be 
at  peace  with  its  governor.  The  building  materials, 
including  columns  and  marble  slabs,  were  piled  on  a 
vessel  and  conveyed  by  water  to  Cairo.  The  site 
selected  for  the  mosque  was  the  exercise-ground 
named  after  Saladin's  minister  Karakush.  The 
cupola  over  the  Kiblah  (or  mihrab)  was  in  imitation 
of  the  cupola  over  Shafi's  grave;  the  doorway  was 
copied  from  the  door  of  his  own  school  (madrasah) 
which  had  already  been  built. 

Ali  Pasha  has  been  able  to  produce  few  notices  of 
the  fate  of  this  great  building — which  Baibars  does 
not  appear  to  have  ever  intended  for  his  own  mauso- 
leum— before  the  time  of   the   French  expedition, 

[i>5] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

when  the  invaders  turned  it  into  a  fortress.  The 
place  was  then  desecrated  and  various  dwellings 
erected  within  and  around  it.  In  Mohammed  Ali's 
time  a  military  bake-house  was  instituted  inside  the 
old  mosque:  this  was  removed  in  the  time  of  Isma'il 
Pasha,  but  has  been  renewed  since  the  British  occu- 
pation. Three  inscriptions  that  still  remain  have 
been  published  by  M.  von  Berchem,  in  which  the 
name,  date,  and  titles  of  the  founder  are  preserved. 
An  interesting  title  is  that  of  "  Copartner  with  the 
Commander  of  the  Faithful,"  by  whom  the  Abbasid 
is  meant,  whose  installation  at  Cairo  constituted  one 
of  Baibar's  masterstrokes.  These  Mameluke  Sultans 
seem  to  have  been  quite  ready  to  acknowledge  their 
original  status;  and  one  of  the  adjectives  employed  as 
a  title  of  the  founder  means  that  he  was  the  f reedman 
of  the  Ayyubid  Sultan  Salih. 

The  same  Sultan  was  also  the  founder  of  a  school 
(madrasah)  called  the  Zahiriyyah,  which  used  to 
be  in  the  Nahassin  Street,  forming  part  of  the  ancient 
avenue  "  Between  the  two  Palaces."  This  was  erected 
in  1263,  when  the  Sultan  was  in  Syria,  on  the  site  of 
part  of  the  old  Fatimide  Palace  called  the  Golden 
Gate.  It  had  four  liwans,  one  for  each  school  of  law, 
according  to  the  system  already  prevailing;  it  was 
furnished  with  a  rich  library,  and  beside  it  was  built 
a  school  for  instructing  poor  orphans  in  the  Koran. 
The  buildings  in  the  space  between  the  Zuwailah 
and  Faraj  Gates  (outside  the  city)  were  settled  on 
the  madrasah,  which  was  to  be  supported  by  their 
rents.     In  Makrizi's  time  it  had  been  superseded  by 

[116] 


A   STREET    NEAR    EI,   GAMAIJYEII. 


THE    FIRST    MAMELUKE    SOVEREIGNS 

the  numerous  other  institutions  of  the  same  kind 
which  had  been  erected  in  the  neighbourhood;  till 
V  1870  some  ruins  still  remained;  but  in  1874  ^^e  ruins 
were  almost  entirely  removed,  owing  to  the  cutting 
of  a  new  street  to  the  Bait  al-Kadi.  One  of  the  doors 
in  finely  wrought  bronze  was  discovered  by  M.  van 
Berchem  in  the  French  Consulate-general,  whither 
it  had  been  taken  apparently  at  the  time  when  the 
ruins  were  cleared  away.  It  bears  an  inscription 
with  the  name  of  the  Sultan,  and  a  date  in  somewhat 
later  style. 

One  chronicler  credits  Baibars  with  rebuilding 
al-Azhar  "  after  it  had  been  in  ruins  since  the  time 
of  Hakim,"  but  this  must  be  a  gross  exaggeration. 
He  also  built  a  bridge  over  the  Great  Canal,  long 
famous  as  "  The  Lions'  Bridge,"  so  called  after  some 
stone  lions  with  which  it  was  adorned,  and  which 
were  put  there  because  the  animal  figured  on  the 
Sultan's  coat  of  arms.  This  bridge  was  near  Sayyidah 
Zainab,  and  was  of  great  height.  The  great  builder 
Mohammed  al-Nasir  replaced  it  by  a  bridge  that 
was  lower  and  wider,  not,  Makrizi  states,  because 
there  was  anything  the  matter  with  it,  but  because 
this  Sultan  envied  any  architectural  or  engineering 
glory  enjoyed  by  his  predecessors.  Baibars  also 
restored  the  barracks  on  the  Island  of  Raudah,  and 
compelled  his  bodyguard  to  establish  themselves 
there. 

The  Bab  al-Luk  quarter  also,  we  are  told,  received 
an  access  of  population  owing  to  the  policy  of  the 
Sultan  in  welcoming  Tartar  colonists.    Quite  at  the 

["9] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

beginning  of  his  reign  emissaries,  sent  by  him  into 
Syria  to  discover  the  plans  of  Hulagu,  found  a  de- 
tachment of  Mongols  who  were  anxious  to  seek  the 
protection  of  the  Egyptian  Sultan,  being  in  number 
about  a  thousand  horsemen  with  their  families.  On 
November  1 1,  1262,  these  refugees  were  given  a  pub- 
lic reception  by  the  Sultan,  who  had  ordered  houses 
to  be  built  for  their  habitation  in  the  region  that  has 
been  mentioned,  and  the  welcome  granted  to  these 
Mongols  with  the  promotion  that  was  speedily  ac- 
corded them  in  the  Sultan's  service  led  to  many  more 
of  their  brethren  following  their  example.  An  ex- 
ercise-ground was  laid  out  in  the  same  region,  and 
there  every  Tuesday  and  Saturday  the  Sultan  rode  to 
play  ball.  The  origin  of  the  name  Luk  appears  to 
be  quite  obscure;  the  grammarians  try  to  show  that  it 
means  land  originally  submerged,  but  afterward  re- 
covered, a  description  which  would  suit  this  part  of 
Cairo  accurately. 

Another  quarter  that  grew  up  in  Baibars'  time  was 
in  the  region  between  Sayyidah  Zainab  and  the  Nile, 
and  another  in  the  region  yet  further  south,  adjoin- 
ing the  river,  called  Dair  al-Tin,  or  Clay  Monastery, 
where  brick-kilns  had  previously  occupied  the 
ground. 

The  character  of  Baibars  is  one  of  great  psycho- 
logical interest,  and  in  some  way  resembles  that  of 
Napoleon.  His  victories,  like  Napoleon's,  were  won 
by  his  great  rapidity  of  movement:  he  went  from 
Egypt  to  Syria  and  Syria  to  Egypt  in  times  that  con- 
stituted records  for  that  age.     Where  his  personal 

[  120] 


THE    FIRST    MAMELUKE     SOVEREIGNS 

ambition  was  concerned,  he  appears  to  have  recog- 
nised no  moral  obligations.  The  indictment  against 
him  drawn  up  by  the  German  historian  Weil  leaves 
a  most  painful  impression  on  the  reader.  Perfidy  and 
cunning  can  nowhere  be  better  illustrated.  Appar- 
ently, however,  the  Moslem  world  of  those  days, 
owing  to  the  terrible  catastrophes  which  it  had  un- 
dergone, could  not  easily  be  shocked;  and  we  find 
that  the  murder  of  Turanshah  with  which  his  career 
commenced,  horrified  the  imprisoned  Crusaders 
much  more  than  Turanshah's  subjects;  and  the  calm- 
ness with  which  the  people  of  Egypt  permitted  Bai- 
bars  to  seat  himself  on  the  throne  of  the  meritorious 
Sultan  whom  he  had  assassinated  could  not  easily 
be  paralleled  either  in  earlier  or  later  times.  That 
such  a  man  as  Baibars  should  have  been  a  founder  of 
religious  edifices  is  not  surprising;  what  astonishes 
us  more  is  that  he  appears  in  many  ways  to  have  led 
a  blameless  life,  and  to  have  sincerely  interested  him- 
self in  the  reformation  of  public  morals.  The 
growth  of  Cairo  in  his  time  was  largely  due  to  the 
scrupulousness  with  which  he  looked  after  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice.  His  services  to  Islam  irt 
repelling  the  Mongols  and  bringing  the  Prankish 
kingdom  established  by  the  Crusaders  to  the  verge 
of  extinction,  were  very  great;  and,  probably,  the 
elaborate  hierarchy  of  officials  which  characterises 
Mameluke  times  was  at  least  in  part  due  to  his  genius 
for  organisation. 

On  July  I,  1277,  Baibars  died  and  was  buried  in 
Damascus.     He  was  succeeded  by  an  incompetent 

[121] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

son,  Barakah  Khan,  otherwise  called  al-Malik 
al-Sa'id,  who  soon  became  involved  in  disputes  with 
both  his  provincial  governors  and  his  bodyguard  in 
Egypt.  M.  van  Berchem  identified  a  mosque  in  the 
old  street  Khurunfush,  which  had  been  built  by  the 
maternal  uncle  of  the  Sultan,  of  whom  we  read  that 
'  he  was  imprisoned  for  ten  days  for  the  offence  of 
representing  to  the  Sultan's  sister  that  unless  he  acted 
with  greater  prudence  he  would  lose  his  throne.  This 
mosque  was  in  ruins  when  the  Swiss  archaeologist 
first  saw  it,  and  has  since  been  displaced  by  a  cafe. 
Sa'id  himself  is  said  to  have  built  a  bath,  but  of  this 
there  appears  to  be  no  trace. 

Sa'id  found  first  a  mentor  and  presently  a  danger- 
ous rival  in  the  Emir  Kala'un  al-Alfi,  who  was  in 
command  of  the  Syrian  forces,  and  had  been  pro- 
moted and  highly  trusted  by  Baibars.  The  Queen- 
mother  endeavoured  to  mediate  between  them,  but, 
though  treated  with  respect,  she  succeeded  only  par- 
tially, and  after  some  negotiations  Kala'un  marched 
against  Cairo,  and  besieged  the  Citadel  in  the  Sul- 
tan's absence.  Kala'un  permitted  the  Sultan  to  join 
his  besieged  adherents,  in  order  thereby  to  get  him 
more  easily  into  his  power.  The  Sultan  found  him- 
self unable  to  stand  a  siege,  and  was  soon  induced  to 
abdicate,  on  condition  of  being  allowed  possession 
of  Kerak,  a  city  which  played  a  rather  important 
part  in  Mameluke  times  as  a  refuge  for  deposed  sov- 
ereigns. There  shortly  afterwards  he  died  of  a  fall 
from  his  horse. 

Kala'un  did  not  at  first  venture  to  proclaim  himself 
[  122] 


THE    FIRST    MAMELUKE    SOVEREIGNS 

sovereign,  thinking  it  safer  to  make  an  infant  brother 
of  Sa'id,  nominal  Sultan.  His  confederates,  however, 
represented  to  him  that  this  arrangement  would  lead 
them  into  danger,  since  the  bodyguard  of  Baibars 
would  probably  group  round  the  son  of  their  former 
chief  and  eventually  oust  the  usurper.  To  this  argu- 
ment he  yielded,  and  allowed  himself  to  be  installed 
as  Sultan  on  November  i8,  1279. 

An  Under-Secretary  of  State,  who  has  left  us  a 
biography,  or  rather  panegyric  of  this  Sultan,  gives 
an  account  of  an  interview  that  preceded  the  procla- 
mation. He  had  already  taken  possession  of  the 
Palace  of  the  Sultan  Sa'id  on  the  Citadel,  and  had 
opened  a  window  in  the  Great  Hall,  where  he  sat 
to  discharge  his  duties  as  regent:  He  commanded 
me,  says  the  Under-secretary,  to  write  out  the  names 
of  a  number  of  earlier  kings — doubtless  with  the 
view  of  selecting  a  suitable  name.  The  Under-sec- 
retary refused  to  make  out  such  a  list  in  the  palace  of 
a  king  who  was  reigning,  and  could  not  be  prevailed 
upon  to  do  so  until  all  the  ministers  were  assembled: 
so  great  was  his  fear  of  being  an  accomplice  in  a 
coup  which  might  after  all  fail.  When  the  minis- 
ters were  all  present,  the  Under-secretary  made  out 
his  list;  and  Kala'un  selected  the  name  Mansur 
as  his  royal  title.  He  has  been  manumitted  from 
slavery  thirty-three  years  before. 

His  first  years  of  sovereignty  were  occupied  with 
troubles  in  Syria,  where  a  governor  of  Damascus  re- 
belled; and  though  this  rebellion  was  crushed  in  the 
spring  of  1280,  the  disaffected  Syrians  entered  into 

[123] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

relations  with  the  Mongols,  who  repeatedly  invaded 
and  ravaged  the  country,  but  were  defeated  by 
Kala'un  in  a  great  battle  under  the  walls  of  Horns 
on  October  30,  1281. 

During  his  residence  in  Damascus  Kala'un  had 
been  cured  of  the  colic  by  remedies  prepared  at  the 
hospital  that  had  been  founded  there  by  the  Sultan 
Nur  al-din.  Kala'un  resolved  to  provide  his  Egyp- 
tian capital  with  a  similar  institution,  and  the  name  of 
this  still  remains  in  the  Muristan  (an  abbreviation  of 
the  Persian  word  Bimaristan)  or  hospital  in  the  Na- 
hassin  Street.  The  name  is  ordinarily  made  to  in- 
clude three  buildings,  the  hospital,  the  school,  and 
the  mausoleum  of  the  Sultan,  which  lay  behind  the 
others.  The  building  which  they  replaced  belonged 
originally  to  the  daughter  of  the  Fatimide  Sultan 
Aziz,  and  when  taken  over  by  Kala'un  was  in  the 
possession  of  an  Ayyubid  princess,  to  whom  the 
Emerald  Palace,  part  of  the  ancient  Fatimide  Palace, 
was  given  in  exchange.  The  Fatimide  princess  had 
been  served  in  it  by  8000  slave  girls  (if  Oriental 
figures  are  to  be  trusted) — a  statemicnt  which  indi- 
cates its  size.  A  story  similar  to  that  connected  with 
the  Tulun  Mosque  was  excogitated  to  conceal  the 
source  when  the  funds  had  been  supplied  for  cover- 
ing the  expense.  The  workmen  when  digging  the 
soil  fortunately  discovered  sealed  boxes  containing 
jewels  and  coin  in  sufficient  quantities  to  defray  the 
whole.  The  reason  for  this  fiction  was  that  great 
violence  had  been  used  by  the  contractor  in  employ- 
ing forced  labour  for  the  building.     All  the  artisans, 

[  124] 


o 


THE    FIRST    MAMELUKE     SOVEREIGNS 

we  are  told,  in  Cairo  and  Fostat  were  compelled  to 
work  at  this  and  nothing  else,  no  other  orders  in 
either  city  being  allowed  to  be  attended  to  while  it 
was  being  erected.  Passers-by  were  compelled  to 
stop,  or  if  mounted  to  descend  from  their  horses  and 
carry  stones,  and  in  order  to  supply  materials,  build- 
ings in  the  Island  of  Raudah  were  pulled  down.  Be- 
sides this  it  was  generally  supposed  that  the  Ayyubid 
princess  had  been  turned  out  of  her  palace  against 
her  will;  though  Makrizi  observes  about  this  that  no 
resentment  could  justly  be  felt  for  the  robbery  of 
the  Ayyubids,  who  themselves  had  robbed  the  Fati- 
mides.  It  would  seem,  however,  that  the  mode  in 
which  the  transformation  of  the  building  was  carried 
out  gave  great  offence,  and  means  had  to  be  devised 
to  allay  the  agitation.  The  arrangements  when  the 
hospital  was  complete  were  said  to  be  superior  to 
those  of  any  similar  institution.  It  was  to  be  open 
to  any  number  of  persons  for  any  length  of  time, 
whether  male  or  female,  bond  or  free.  Separate 
wards  were  assigned  to  different  diseases;  arrange- 
ments were  made  for  the  treatment  of  out-patients  as 
well  as  in-patients;  and  medical  courses  were  to  be 
given  for  the  benefit  of  students  who  "  walked  the 
hospital."  From  the  rents  which  were  settled  upon 
it,  amounting  to  a  million  dirhems,  a  whole  stafif  of 
officials,  including  bed-makers,  male  and  female, 
were  to  be  paid;  and  materials  of  various  sorts  re- 
quired for  the  compounding  of  drugs  were  liberally 
supplied.  Arrangements  on  a  similar  scale  were 
made  in  connection  with  the  school,  the  orphanage, 

[  127] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

and  the  sepulchral  cupola  which  was  to  be  the  Sul- 
tan's own  resting-place;  fifty  readers  of  the  Koran 
were  employed  to  recite  the  Sacred  Volume  in  turns 
without  ceasing  day  or  night;  and  a  library  was,  as 
usual,  added  to  the  foundation.  Van  Berchem  shows 
by  the  evidence  of  inscriptions  that  the  hospital  took 
five  months,  the  mausoleum  four  months,  and  the 
school  three  months  to  build:  a  fact  which  agrees 
with  what  we  are  told  of  the  violent  methods  em- 
ployed by  the  contractor  for  hurrying  on  the  work. 
The  date  of  the  completion  of  the  whole  was  August, 

1285. 

The  scene  which  is  described  as  taking  place  after 
the  completion  of  the  buildings  gives  us  an  idea  of 
the  liberty  of  speech  permitted  at  this  time  in  Egypt, 
which  we  could  scarcely  have  gleaned  from  the  his- 
tory. The  jurists  declared  prayer  in  such  a  place 
unlawful.  The  chief  ecclesiastical  authority  of  the 
time  long  refused  to  preach  an  inaugural  sermon, 
and  when  at  last  he  consented  to  do  so,  it  contained 
some  bitter  reproaches  levelled  both  at  the  Sultan 
and  the  minister  who  had  been  entrusted  with  the 
work  of  erection.  Even  the  principal  finally  ap- 
pointed to  the  new  institution  expressed  his  opinion 
of  both  quite  freely  before  he  accepted  the  post. 

The  hospital  remained  in  use  for  many  centuries, 
and  received  benefactions  from  Ezbek,  after  whom 
the  Ezbekiyyah  is  named,  and  also  from  some  of  the 
Turkish  Sultans.  It  appears  to  have  fallen  into  neg- 
lect at  the  time  of  the  French  occupation,  and  never 
afterwards  recovered.    A  school  of  Malekite  law  still 

[128] 


THE    FIRST    MAMELUKE    SOVEREIGNS 

remains.  In  the  earthquake  of  1303  a  minaret  was 
damaged,  but  was  immediately  afterward  restored 
by  the  great  builder,  the  Sultan  Nasir,  who  also 
placed  the  railing  round  the  Sultan  Kala'un's  tomb. 
That  Kala'un  should  have  set  about  building  his 
mosque-mausoleum  so  soon  after  his  accession  to  the 
throne  shows  how  quickly  the  idea  of  such  a  form  of 
monument,  which  was  originally  quite  alien  to  Islam, 
had  taken  root. 

Two  obelisks  now  in  the  British  Museum,  covered 
with  hieroglyphics,  were  found  by  the  French  in  the 
school  of  Kala'un,  and  sent  ofif  to  France.  The  vessel 
by  which  they  were  conveyed  was  captured  by  an 
English  man-of-war,  which  brought  the  obelisks  to 
England. 

The  conversion  to  Islam  of  the  Ilchan  (the  title 
by  which  the  Mongol  ruler  of  Baghdad  was  known) 
and  the  consequent  troubles  in  the  Mongol  empire 
led  to  a  cessation  of  hostilities  between  Egypt  and 
the  Ilchanate,  though  the  Mongol  rulers  did  not 
cease  to  agitate  in  Europe  for  a  renewal  of  the  cru- 
sades with  little  result.  Kala'un  did  not  at  first  pur- 
sue any  career  of  active  conquest,  though  he  did 
much  to  consolidate  his  dominions,  and  especially  to 
extend  Egyptian  commerce,  for  which  purpose  he 
started  a  system  of  passports  enabling  merchants  who 
possessed  them  to  travel  with  safety  through  Egypt 
and  Syria,  and  as  far  as  India.  After  the  danger 
from  the  Mongols  had  ceased,  he  directed  his  ener- 
gies toward  capturing  the  last  places  in  Syria  that 
were    still   occupied  by  the   Franks.     In    1290  he 

[  129] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

planned  an  attack  on  Acre,  but  died  (November  lo) 
in  the  middle  of  his  preparations.  During  the 
greater  part  of  his  reign  he  took  one  of  his  sons  as 
associate  in  the  government,  and  indeed  kept  him  to 
take  care  of  Egypt,  while  himself  absent  in  Syria;  on 
the  death  of  his  son  Musa,  in  1288,  he  associated  with 
himself  his  son  Khalil,  who  was  his  successor.  The 
Under-Secretary  has  preserved  a  very  elaborate  set 
of  instructions  given  by  Kala'un  to  his  victory  for  the 
conduct  of  affairs  during  his  absence.  The  pigeon- 
post,  the  telegraph  of  the  time,  was  to  be  organised 
so  as  to  convey  to  headquarters  early  tidings  of  the 
rising  of  the  Nile;  and  great  trouble  was  to  be  taken 
to  see  that  all  bridges  and  embankments  were  in  good 
order.  The  viceroy  must  also  see  that  every  patch  of 
ground  in  which  cultivation  was  possible  should  be 
cultivated. 

The  viceroy's  first  business,  we  read  in  one  of  these 
sets  of  instructions,  when  he  returns  to  the  Citadel 
after  bidding  his  father  farewell  and  Godspeed  on 
one  of  his  warlike  expeditions,  is  to  look  carefully 
after  the  disaffected  Emirs  who  happen  to  be  im- 
prisoned in  the  Citadel,  to  see  that  they  are  properly 
fed  and  clothed,  and  that  if  any  of  them  are  ill,  they 
should  receive  proper  medical  attendance,  and  by 
fair  promises  to  endeavour  to  win  their  loyalty. 
Great  care  is  to  be  taken  that  the  gates  of  the  Citadel 
are  properly  guarded,  and  indeed  the  Eastern  or 
Cemetery  Gate  is  to  be  kept  locked  the  whole  time 
of  our  absence.  The  municipal  authorities  are  to 
keep  special  guard  on  such  parts  of  both  cities  as  are 

[  130] 


THE    FIRST    MAMELUKE     SOVEREIGNS 

likely  to  be  rendezvous  of  evil  doers;  such  places 
are  in  particular  the  Nile-bank,  the  Cemeteries,  and 
the  Ponds,  i.  e.,  the  Elephant's  Pool,  the  Abyssian's 
Pool  and  some  others  now  dried  up.  At  night  both 
cities  should  be  patrolled  and  the  Dispensaries  locked 
up;  and  especially  certain  public  halls  in  the  Husa- 
iniyyah  quarter,  called  Halls  of  Chivalry  (ka'at  al- 
futuwah)  which  were  frequented  by  turbulent  per- 
sons. All  persons  practising  astrology  are  to  be  in- 
hibited, and  their  instruments  seized,  while  the  public 
are  to  be  warned  to  place  no  confidence  in  their  arts. 
The  judges  appointed  to  settle  religious  questions 
are  to  sit  in  the  liwans  of  the  various  schools  every 
day,  Fridays  not  excepted,  both  morning  and  even- 
ing, and  are  to  avoid  all  mutual  rivalry.  The  pro- 
vincial governors  are  to  be  perpetually  reminded 
that  no  one  must  be  allowed  to  get  more  or  less  than 
his  fair  share  of  Nile  water.  The  viceroy  is  advised 
not  to  ride  out  much,  and  when  he  does  so  to  keep 
to  the  highway,  only  to  admit  to  his  neighbourhood 
persons  in  whom  he  has  complete  confidence,  and 
when  in  the  course  of  his  promenades  petitions  are 
handed  to  him,  to  see  that  justice  is  done  to  the  peti- 
tioners. 

Kala'un  appears  to  have  built  barracks  on  the 
Citadel  for  the  large  numbers  of  guards  whom  he 
purchased,  whilst  still  retaining  some  on  the  Island 
of  Raudah:  the  former  class  came  to  be  entitled  the 
Mamelukes  of  the  Tower  (Burjis),  and  when 
Kala'un's  dynasty  was  overthrown  that  which  suc- 
ceeded it  was  called  by  that  name.    The  native  his- 

[131] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

torians  praise  him  for  giving  the  Mamelukes  a  less 
hideous  uniform  than  they  had  previously  been  com- 
pelled to  wear.  The  old  uniform  had  included  a 
dull  blue  cap,  the  hair  being  allowed  to  grow  in  long 
tresses  which  were  tied  up  in  a  bag  of  red  or  yellow 
silk;  the  tunics  were  fastened  with  a  buckle  of 
leather  and  brass,  to  which  were  attached  great  bags 
of  black  leather,  containing  a  wooden  spoon  and  a 
long  knife.  Kala'un  abolished  this  eccentric  attire, 
and  adorned  his  officers  with  fur  and  velvet. 

He  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Khalil,  who  carried 
out  his  father's  policy  of  driving  the  Franks  out  of 
Palestine  and  Syria,  and  proceeded  with  the  siege  of 
Acre,  which  he  took  (May  i8,  1291)  after  a  siege 
of  forty-three  days.  The  capture  and  destruction  of 
this  important  place  was  followed  by  the  capture  of 
Tyre,  Sidon,  Haifa,  Athlith  and  Beyrut;  and  thus 
the  nearer  East  was  cleared  of  the  Crusaders. 

Acre  was  utterly  destroyed  by  Khalil,  and  its  fine 
buildings  came  to  be  a  quarry  for  building  materials. 
Khalil's  brother  Nasir,  who  reigned  after  him,  got 
thence  the  marble  doorway  of  his  school;  it  had 
originally  adorned  a  church  in  Acre.  Others  were 
used  by  Khalil  himself  for  edifices  which  he  caused 
to  be  constructed  in  Damascus  and  elsewhere.  His 
own  tomb,  to  which  a  school  was  once  attached,  in 
the  Sayyidah  Nefisah  region,  was  built  before  this 
event,  and  while  he  was  associated  with  his  father, 
who  is  named  in  the  epitaph  with  such  titles  as  are 
assigned  only  to  living  sovereigns.  Close  by  is  the 
tomb  of  his  stepmother,  the  mother  of  his  brother 

[  132  ] 


.MOSOIKS    I\     rilK    Sll  AKl  A    I!  A  H-KI.-W  A/ I  K,  CAIKO. 


THE    FIRST    MAMELUKE    SOVEREIGNS 

Salih,  who  had  originally  been  appointed  to  succeed. 
The  triumphal  entry  of  Khalil  into  Cairo  after  his 
return  from  the  holy  war  must  have  been  one  of  the 
most  glorious  processions  in  which  Moslem  Sultan 
ever  figured.  "  He  entered  at  the  Nasr  Gate,  and 
went  across  the  city,  the  Emirs  walking  before  him, 
while  the  Viceroy  carried  the  parasol  with  the  bird 
over  his  head,  and  the  caparisons  were  shaken  before 
him;  and  when  he  arrived  at  the  hospital,  he  turned 
his  horse,  and  went  to  visit  his  father's  grave;  after 
which  he  rode  up  to  the  Citadel,  and  distributed 
decorations.  The  name  Saladin  which  was  one  of 
his  titles  of  honour,  while  he  reigned  under  the 
name  of  al-Ashraf,  had  not  been  given  him  in  vain. 
Yet  it  does  not  appear  that  he  shared  with  his  illus-' 
trious  namesake  the  qualities  which  have  rendered 
the  later  a  type  of  chivalry.  And  the  glory  of  hav- 
ing achieved  what  his  predecessors  for  two  hundred 
years  had  vainly  striven  to  accomplish  is  said  to  have 
turned  his  head. 

The  career  of  the  Conqueror  of  the  Franks  was 
brought  to  an  abrupt  conclusion  at  the  beginning  of 
the  fourth  year  of  his  reign  (December  12,  1293). 
In  the  disputes  between  his  favourite  Ibn  Sa'lus  and 
his  Viceroy  Baidara,  he  took  the  part  of  the  former, 
and  the  Viceroy,  who  appears  to  have  peculated  on 
a  tremendous  scale,  organised  a  conspiracy  against 
his  master.  Baidara  and  his  party  fell  upon  the  Sul- 
tan when  he  was  hunting  without  escort  at  Tarujah, 
near  Damanhur;  they  killed  and  mutilated  him,  and 
proceeded  to  elect  Baidara  Sultan  in  his  place,  after 

[13;] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

the  precedent  set  in  the  time  of  Baibars.  But  thirty 
years  of  orderly  government  had  changed  men's 
ideas  on  this  subject;  the  ministers  and  guards  of  the 
murdered  Sultan  met  the  assassins  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  Nile,  as  they  were  returning  to  Cairo,  and  routed 
them.  Baidara  was  himself  killed,  and  the  avengers 
of  al-Ashraf  regaled  themselves  in  primitive  and 
savage  st>4e  on  his  liver.  But  the  corpse  of  the  vic- 
tim remained  three  days  in  the  desert,  and  was 
gnawed  by  wolves  before  what  was  left  of  it  could  be 
taken  up  and  deposited  in  the  mausoleum  that  had 
been  built  none  too  soon. 


[136] 


NASIR   AND    HIS    SONS 

^^^^^^HE  younger  son  of  Kala'un,  who  was  now 
M  0\  placed  on  the  throne,  had  the  singular  for- 
^L        J  tune  of  reigning  three  times,  being  twice 

^^^  dethroned.  He  was  first  appointed  Sultan  fjA'  l-^C^-^ 
on  December  14,  1293,  when  he  was  nine  years  old, 
and  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom  were  undertaken  by  a 
Cabinet,  consisting  of  a  vizier,  a  viceroy,  a  war  min- 
ister, a  prefect  of  the  palace,  and  a  secretary  of  state. 
Three  of  these  five  were  destined  to  enjoy  ephemeral 
sovereignty;  the  first,  Sanjar  al-Shuja'i,  though  never 
a  sovereign,  is  known  to  history  as  the  general  em- 
ployed by  the  Sultan  Khalil  in  his  war  against  the 
remnant  of  the  Franks.  According  to  the  historian,  he 
aspired  to  be  Sultan,  and  went  so  far  as  to  offer  a 
price  for  the  head  of  any  follower  of  the  Viceroy 
Ketbogha:  the  latter  got  together  a  force,  defeated 
the  Vizier's  forces  in  the  Horse-market  between 
Cairo  and  the  Citadel,  and  besieged  his  rival,  who 
had  retreated  into  the  fortress.  The  Queen-mother 
then  addressed  the  besiegers  from  the  wall  of  the 
Citadel,  and  asked  what  they  wanted:  the  reply  was 
the  deposition  of  the  Vizier.  To  this  the  Queen- 
mother  assented,   and  the  Vizier's  fickle  followers 

[  137] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

turned  against  him  and  beheaded  him.  A  man  car- 
ried his  head  out  to  the  besiegers  in  a  silk  wrapper. 
"What  have  you  there?  "  asked  the  guardian  of  the 
gate,  an  adherent  of  the  fallen  Vizier.  "  Hot  bread 
to  show  them  that  they  are  not  likely  to  starve  us 
out,"  was  the  reply.  The  head  was  then  carried 
round  the  city;  and  since  it  was  this  Vizier  who  had 
organised  the  forced  labour  in  connection  with  the 
building  of  Kala'un's  hospital,  the  Cairenes  paid 
the  carriers  money  to  let  them  have  the  head  in  their 
houses  to  beat  it  with  sandals.  The  conqueror  Ket- 
bogha  assumed  the  reins,  and  after  a  short  time, 
was  strong  enough  to  depose  the  infant  Sultan,  whose 
first  reign  was  eleven  stormy  months.  The  new 
Sultan  was  a  Mongol,  who  had  been  taken  prisoner 
by  Kala'un  in  one  of  his  battles. 

This  Sultan's  reign  was  rather  less  than  two  years, 
and  was  clouded  by  famine  and  pestilence.  The  oc- 
casion of  his  absence  was  seized  by  his  viceroy,  Lajin, 
who,  after  the  murder  of  Khalil,  had  hidden  in  the 
Mosque  of  Ahmad  Ibn  Tulun,  and  afterwards  been 
promoted  by  Ketbogha,  to  oust  his  benefactor  and 
master.  During  Ketbogha's  time  the  population  of 
Cairo  was  increased  by  a  fresh  colony  of  Mongols, 
who  settled  in  the  Husainiyyah  quarter,  to  the  north 
of  the  Futuh  Gate;  while  in  the  south,  overlooking 
the  Elephant's  Pool,  some  building  was  occasioned 
by  the  Sultan  laying  out  an  exercise-ground,  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  that  which  Baibars  had  selected  at  the 
Bab  al-Luk.  This  exercise-ground  soon  had  to  give 
way  to  a  palace,  built  by  the  Sultan  Nasir. 

[138] 


NASIR   AND    HIS    SONS 

Lajin  himself  fell  a  victim  to  a  conspiracy  of  the 
Praetorians  when  he  had  reigned  two  years  and  two 
months.  The  murderer  was  almost  immediately  ex- 
ecuted by  a  commander  who  returned  to  Cairo  the 
day  after  the  event;  and  the  Emirs  decided  on  the  re- 
call of  al-Nasir,  then  in  exile  at  Kerak.  February 
II,  1298,  was  the  day  on  which  he  commenced  his 
second  term  of  sovereignty. 

M.  van  Berchem  has  discovered  some  curious  ves- 
tiges of  the  quick  succession  of  rulers  in  the  school 
of  the  Sultan  Nasir,  which  is  to  the  north  of  the 
^  mausoleum  of  the  Sultan  Kala'un.  An  inscription 
contains  the  contradictory  statement  that  it  was  built 
by  the  Sultan  Mohammed  al-Nasir  in  the  year  of 
the  Hijrah  695,  when,  in  fact,  Ketbogha  and  not 
al-Nasir  was  reigning.  Apparently  then — and  this  is 
asserted  by  the  archaeologists — the  school  was  begun 
by  Ketbogha,  and  had  risen  as  high  as  the  gilt  band 
on  the  f  agade,  when  Ketbogha  was  dethroned.  Work 
on  the  school  was  then  resumed  when  Mohammed 
was  restored  and  then  apparently  the  old  date  was  al- 
lowed to  stand,  while  the  name  of  the  sovereign  was 
altered — perhaps  in  virtue  of  a  theory  similar  to  that 
by  which  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  is  supposed  to  have 
commenced  at  the  death  of  Charles  I.  M.  van 
Berchem  accounts  for  the  date  of  completion,  703 
A.  H.^  which  seems  to  involve  a  longer  time  than 
might  reasonably  have  been  occupied  by  a  moderate 
sized  edifice  (supposing  indeed  that  building  was 
continuous) — by  the  supposition  that  it  suffered 
from  the  great  earthquake  of  the  year  702,  and  had 

[  139] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

to  be  rebuilt  a  year  or  two  after  its  actual  completion. 
Its  doorway  was  regarded  by  Makrizi  as  one  of  the 
wonders  of  the  world.  It  was  of  white  marble,  of 
great  beauty  and  extraordinary  workmanship,  hav- 
ing come  originally  from  one  of  the  churches  at  Acre. 
Inside  the  gate  there  is  a  cupola,  smaller  than  that 
built  by  the  Sultan's  father,  where  his  mother  and 
one  of  his  sons  lie  buried,  he  himself  lying  near  his 
father. 

This  earthquake  commenced  in  August,  1303  A.D.^ 
and  shocks  were  felt  for  twenty  successive  days. 
Great  damage  was  done  in  Alexandria,  where  the  re- 
turning wave,  which  is  a  phenomenon  often  accom- 
panying great  earthquakes,  inundated  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  city.  On  Thursday,  the  23d  of  the 
month  Dhu'  1-Hijjah,  says  Makrizi,  at  the  moment 
of  morning  prayer,  the  whole  land  shook;  the  walls 
were  heard  to  crack,  and  terrible  sounds  proceeded 
from  the  roofs.  Pedestrians  were  compelled  to  bend 
down,  men  on  horseback  fell  off  their  mounts.  The 
people  imagined  that  the  sky  was  coming  down.  All 
the  inhabitants,  men  and  women,  rushed  out  into  the 
streets.  The  terror  and  haste  was  such  that  the 
women  did  not  wait  to  veil  their  faces.  Houses  tum- 
bled down,  walls  split,  the  minarets  of  the  mosques 
and  the  schools  were  overthrown,  many  children 
were  prematurely  born.  Violent  winds  arose,  the 
Nile  overflowed,  and  tossed  such  boats  as  hap- 
pened to  be  on  the  bank  to  the  distance  of  a  bowshot. 
Presently  the  water  withdrew,  and  left  these  vessels 
with  broken  anchors  high  and  dry.    The  inhabitants, 

[  140] 


•«">,..  ,ir'^  ' 


GATKWAV   OF   THE    MOSQUE   OF   IBRAHIM    AGllA,   CAIRO. 


NASIR   AND    HIS    SONS 

driven  by  fright  out  of  their  houses,  took  no  thought 
of  what  they  had  left  inside.  They  were  entered  by 
robbers,  who  seized  whatever  they  chose.  The  own- 
ers passed  the  night  in  tents,  which  were  set  up  from 
Boulak  to  Raudah.  Only  Thursday  night  was  spent 
in  the  mosques  and  chapels  by  crowds  imploring  the 
mercy  of  God. 

Of  edifices  that  were  damaged  by  the  earthquake 
— which  left  fallen  bricks  or  other  traces  of  itself  in 
the  doorway  of  every  house — Makrizi  enumerates 
the  mosque  of  Amr,  the  mosque  al-Azhar,  the  mosque 
of  Salih  situated  outside  the  Bab  Zuwailah,  the 
school  of  Kala'un,  which  lost  its  minaret,  and  the 
mosque  of  al-Fakihani,  which  underwent  the  same 
disaster.  Forty  curtains  and  twenty-seven  towers  be- 
longing to  the  wall  of  Cairo  fell.  Cairo  and  Fostat 
were  left  in  such  a  condition  that  anyone  who  saw 
them  might  have  supposed  that  they  had  been  sacked 
by  an  enemy. 

To  the  second  reign  of  the  Sultan  Nasir  belongs 
the  Mosque  of  Jauli,  removed  by  a  couple  of  hun- 
dred metres  from  the  Mosque  of  Ibn  Tulun.  It  con- 
tains two  domed  tombs  of  the  Emirs  Sanjar  and 
Salar,  both  celebrities  of  this  period.  The  inscrip- 
tion published  by  van  Berchem  gives  the  date  of  con- 
struction as  703.  The  Mosque,  of  which  the  shape 
is  unusually  irregular,  occupies  780  square  metres. 
In  one  of  the  many  apartments  which  it  contains  for 
the  use  of  Sufis  (or  ascetics)  there  is,  says  Ali  Pasha 
Mubarak,  a  square  blue  stone,  of  which  the  greater 
portion  is  buried  in  the  soil,  and  in  which  there  is  a 

[■43] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

hole.  Piles,  it  was  supposed,  could  be  cured  by  the 
sufferer  placing  in  this  hole  some  olive  oil;  he  then 
sat  in  the  hole  a  quarter-of-an-hour,  after  which  he 
would  anoint  himself  with  the  oil,  and  his  cure  would 
be  effected.  When  the  Pasha  wrote,  he  could  speak 
of  three  tombs,  of  which,  however,  one  was  unknown. 
The  Emir  Salar  was  Viceroy  when  he  built  this 
monument,  and  held  this  post  for  eleven  years.  By 
domineering  overmuch  over  his  master,  al-Nasir,  he 
caused  the  Sultan,  in  the  year  1308,  to  retire  from  the 
sovereignty  for  a  second  time.  When  al-Nasir  re- 
turned for  the  third  time,  Salar  resigned  his  office, 
and  was  at  first  treated  honourably  by  the  Sultan,  but 
was  presently  seized  and  starved  to  death  in  prison, 
where  he  is  last  heard  of  trying  to  eat  his  shoes.  As 
Viceroy,  he  enjoyed  a  revenue  of  100,000  dirhems  a 
day;  and  a  pretended  report  of  the  treasures  found  in 
his  house  at  the  time  of  his  arrest  gives  the  items  dis- 
covered day  by  day,  thus: 

Sunday:  Nineteen  Egyptian  quarts  of  emeralds; 

Two  Egyptian  quarts  of  rubies; 

Two-and-a-half  quarts  jacinths; 

Six  boxes  of  gems  for  rings,  diamonds 
and  others;  and  so  on,  the  figures  getting  more  and 
more  fabulous. 

The  task  of  arresting  him  had  been  committed  to 
the  other  occupant  of  this  mausoleum,  Sanjar  al- 
Jauli,  who  also  obtained  leave  to  bury  his  friend 
Salar  after  his  death  from  starvation.  This  person, 
after  filling  other  offices,  was  governor  of  Gaza  and 
Southern  Palestine  for  a  number  of  years;  he  was 

[144] 


NASIR   AND    HIS    SONS 

then  recalled  and  imprisoned  for  eight  years  by  al- 
Nasir,  after  which  time  he  was  released  and  given 
office  at  the  Cairene  Court.  During  the  ephemeral 
reigns  that  followed  on  the  death  of  Nasir,  he  played 
an  important  part.  In  his  governorship  of  South 
Palestine  he  distinguished  himself  by  numerous 
works  of  public  utility;  he  rebuilt  Gaza,  and 
founded  mosques,  hospitals  and  schools,  both  there 
and  in  other  important  cities  of  his  province.  Unlike 
his  friend,  he  died  in  his  bed  in  Cairo,  and  was  hon- 
oured with  a  solemn  funeral. 

When,  in  1308,  the  Sultan  Nasir  abdicated  and 
took  refuge  in  Kerak,  his  place  was  taken  by  the 
Emir  Baibars  (called  the  Jashangir,  which  properly 
means  the  taster)  who  had  been  one  of  the  Cabinet 
which  had  governed  for  him  at  his  accession.  His 
reign  lasted  not  quite  a  year,  in  which  he  rendered 
himself  odious  by  punishing  with  barbarous  cruelty 
numbers  of  the  common  people  who  were  guilty  of 
singing  a  comic  song  in  which  he  was  lampooned. 

A  monument  of  this  ephemeral  sovereign  exists  in  p  1 
the  monastery  called  Rukniyyah  (after  his  official 
title  Rukn  al-din)  or  Baibarsiyyah,  in  the  Jamaliyyah 
Street.  The  dervish  who  should  have  no  home  but 
the  Mosque  was  a  natural  object  for  the  bounty  of 
pious  founders,  and  about  400  A.H.  the  custom  arose 
of  building  places  where  they  could  carry  on  their 
devotional  exercises  undisturbed.  The  earliest  place 
of  the  sort  built  in  Cairo  was,  as  has  been  seen,  the 
work  of  the  great  Saladin,  and  the  ascetics  seem  to 
have  done  fairly  well  in  it  at  first:    each  man  was 

[145] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

to  have  daily  three  pounds  of  bread,  three  pounds  of 
meat  with  broth,  sweets  once  a  month,  a  provision 
of  soap,  and  forty  dirhems  yearly  for  clothes.  In 
time  the  revenue  of  Saladin's  hospice  proved  insuf- 
ficient for  this  outlay,  and  great  troubles  arose.  The 
hospice  of  Baibars  II.  was  the  second  of  its  kind  in 
Cairo.  Its  site  is  where  the  ancient  palace  of  the 
Fatimide  viziers  stood.  Originally  it  had  three 
windows  facing  the  street,  of  which  one  was  a  famous 
window  brought  from  Baghdad  by  that  Basasari  who 
defeated  the  Abbasid  Caliph  Ka'im,  and  for  the  mo- 
ment rendered  the  metropolis  of  the  East  subject  to 
the  heretical  Caliphate  of  the  West.  This  part  of 
the  place  was  left  unchanged  when  it  was  transferred 
to  its  religious  purpose.  The  windows  were  after- 
wards removed,  and  shops  substituted  in  order  to 
furnish  rentals  for  the  maintenance  of  the  institution 
when,  owing  to  the  failure  of  the  Nile,  the  ordinary 
revenues  were  cut  ofif.  It  was  begun  by  the  Emir  be- 
fore his  brief  reign,  during  which  it  was  completed, 
but  he  was  compelled  to  flee 'before  the  inaugural 
ceremony  could  take  place;  and  when  Nasir  returned 
he  closed  the  hospice,  and  it  remained  empty  for 
nineteen  years,  when  the  same  Sultan  reopened  it. 
The  inscription  which  remains  contains  traces  of  this 
chequered  history,  which  van  Berchem  with  his 
usual  skill  has  succeeded  in  enucleating.  A  story 
perhaps  less  apocryphal  than  others  dealing  with 
buried  treasure  is  to  the  effect  that  a  friendly  Emir 
informed  Baibars  when  he  commenced  building  that 
there  was  a  store  of  rich  marble  under  part  of  the 

[146] 


NASIR   AND    HIS    SONS 

ancient  Fatimide  palace,  which,  when  discovered, 
had  been  left  undisturbed  and  ready  for  use:  that 
'Baibars  made  use  of  this  information,  had  the  marble 
unearthed,  built  his  hospice,  mausoleum,  and  mili- 
tary asylum  with  part  of  it,  and  stored  the  remainder 
in  the  hospice,  where  Makrizi  declares  that  it  re- 
mained till  his  own  time.  The  hospice  was  to  hold 
four  hundred  ascetics,  the  asylum  one  hundred  de- 
cayed soldiers;  the  mausoleum  was  for  himself,  and 
thither  his  body  was  ultimately  brought,  probably 
after  the  reopening  of  the  establishment.  According 
to  Makrizi  the  workmanship  was  so  sound  that  no 
repairs  were  required  for  a  century  and  a  half. 

In  1892  the  Committee  found  that  the  state  of  de- 
composition to  which  the  walls  had  come  must  speed- 
ily lead  to  the  total  ruin  of  this  monument  and  pre- 
ventive measures  were  taken.  The  marble  with 
which  the  walls  were  still  clothed  proved  that  this 
rich  ornamentation  at  one  time  rose  to  the  height  of 
more  than  3.60  metres.  Slabs  of  coloured  marble 
alternated  with  slabs  of  mosaic.  Many  had  fallen 
and  others  owing  to  the  moisture  of  the  walls  were 
about  to  follow  them. 

If  Baibars  II.  had  permitted  the  exiled  Sultan  to 
remain  quietly  at  Kerak,  he  might  have  attained  his 
throne:  but  by  sending  threatening  and  extortionate 
letters  he  compelled  Nasir  to  invoke  the  feeling  of 
loyalty  to  his  father  Kala'un  that  slumbered  in  the 
breasts  of  his  former  subjects,  especially  in  Syria. 
They  invited  him  to  resume  the  sovereignty,  and 
Baibars  had  to  retreat  precipitately,  being  followed 

[147] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

out  of  his  capital  by  the  hisses  of  the  mob.  He  was 
granted  a  provincial  governorship,  but  before  he 
could  reach  it,  was  arrested  by  order  of  Nasir,  and 
strangled  with  a  bowstring. 

Nasir's  third  reign  lasted  from  1309  to  1340,  and 
was  prosperous  in  most  ways.  The  Sultan  developed 
a  great  taste  for  building  and  similar  operations,  and 
some  of  the  work  done  by  him  on  the  Citadel  has  al- 
ready been  noticed.  A  work  of  another  sort  was  the 
Nasiri  Canal  which  he  had  dug:  in  a  mode  not  un- 
like that  which  was  used  in  much  later  times  for  the 
excavation  of  the  Suez  Canal.  This  Canal  started 
from  the  Nile  in  the  Kasr  al-Ain  region,  and  after  a 
long  course  mainly  northward,  discharged  into  the 
Great  Canal  near  the  Mosque  of  Baibars.  Its  pur- 
pose was,  it  is  said,  to  convey  goods  to  the  buildings 
erected  near  the  new  exercise-ground  laid  out  by  the 
Sultan  at  Siriacos;  but  it  was  also  used  for  pleasure 
parties  and  processions,  and  many  mansions  were 
built  along  its  banks. 

Probably  more  buildings  remain  from  the  time  of 
this  Sultan  than  from  any  of  his  predecessors.  Such 
are  the  mosques  of  the  Emir  Husain  in  a  street  lead- 
ing out  of  the  Mohammed  Ali  Boulevard  in  the  di- 
rection of  the  Bab  al-Khalk:  of  the  Emir  al-Malik 
Jaukandar  in  the  Husainiyyah  quarter:  of  the  Emir 
Almas  in  the  Place  Hilmiyyah:  of  the  Emir  Kausun 
(most  of  it  destroyed  when  the  Mohammed  Ali 
Boulevard  was  constructed)  ;  of  the  Emir  Beshtak  in 
the  Jamamiz  Street,  entirely  renewed  in  the  year 
i860  by  the  brother  of  the  Khedive  Isma'il:  of  the 

[148] 


NASIR   AND    HIS    SONS 

Emir  al-Maridani  near  the  Mihmandar  Mosque,  in 
the  Tabbanah  quarter,  leading  from  the  Zuwailah 
Gate  to  the  Citadel,  which  also  dates  from  a  late 
period  of  Nasir's  reign:  and  of  the  Lady  Maskah 
near  the  Mosque  of  the  Sheik  Salih  to  the  south  of 
the  Mabduli  Street.  The  lady  who  founded  this 
last  mosque  was  a  slave  of  the  Sultan,  who  rose  to 
the  office  of  manageress  of  such  matters  as  were  en- 
trusted to  the  women  of  the  palace,  such  as  the  eti- 
quette of  weddings,  the  education  of  the  royal  chil- 
dren and  the  organisation  of  various  ceremonies. 
The  foundress  records  in  the  dedicatory  inscription 
that  she  had  visited  both  Meccah  and  Medinah.  All 
the  Emirs  mentioned  in  this  list  were  persons  of 
mark  in  Nasir's  reign.  The  Emir  Husain  was  also 
the  builder  of  a  bridge  and  a  wicket  called  after  his 
name,  to  enable  people  to  come  from  Cairo  to  his 
mosque.  The  Emir  Sanjar,  who  was  governor  at 
the  time,  objected  to  a  hole  being  made  by  a  pri- 
vate individual  in  the  city  wall.  When  the  Emir 
Husain,  nevertheless,  obtained  leave  from  the  Sultan 
to  make  it,  and  boasted  of  his  victory  to  Sanjar,  the 
latter  persuaded  the  despot  that  Husain  meant  trea- 
son, and  Husain  was  sent  away  to  Damascus. 

The  mosque  of  Kausun  was  built  by  an  architect 
from  Tabriz,  who  modelled  the  minarets  on  those  of 
a  Tabriz  edifice:  the  founder  appears  to  have  come 
thence  to  Cairo  as  a  trader  in  the  escort  of  one  of  Na- 
sir's brides  and  is  said  to  have  sold  himself — a  some- 
what unusual  proceeding — into  the  service  of  the  Sul- 
tan, and  once  enrolled,  to  have  advanced  rapidly. 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

Like  Joseph  of  old  he  presently  sent  for  his  relatives, 
and  gave  his  sister  to  the  Sultan,  who  married  him  to 
his  daughter.  On  the  Sultan's  death  he  was  left  in 
charge  of  the  royal  children,  and  met  with  his  end  in 
an  attempt  to  secure  the  power  to  himself  by  main- 
taining infants  on  the  throne.  One  of  the  minarets 
fell,  carrying  with  it  a  large  part  of  the  mosque,  in 
the  year  1800,  apparently  being  exploded  by  the 
French;  the  other  minaret  was  destroyed  in  1873 
when  the  Boulevard  Mohammed  Ali  was  cut. 

The  Emir  Beshtak  was  a  famous  builder,  and 
among  other  achievements  erected  himself  a  palace 
in  the  main  avenue  of  Cairo,  facing  that  of  his  rival 
Bisri,  both  so  splendid  that  the  avenue  could  once 
more  be  called  Between  the  two  Palaces,  as  it  had 
been  called  in  the  days  of  Fatimides.  The  remains 
of  the  palace  are  on  the  right  of  the  Nahassin  Street, 
the  actual  entry  to  them  being  in  the  lane  which  leads 
to  the  School  of  Sabik  al-din.  M.  van  Berchem  has 
discovered  the  fragment  of  an  inscription  belonging 
to  it,  which,  however,  contains  neither  date  nor  name. 
His  mosque  was  built  in  a  place  occupied  by  Franks 
and  Copts,  "  who  committed  such  atrocities  as  might 
be  expected  of  them."  When  the  call  to  prayer  re- 
sounded from  the  minaret,  they  were  overawed  and 
left  the  neighbourhood. 

A  bath  erected  by  the  same  person  is  to  be  found  at 
the  opening  of  the  lane  which  bears  his  name,  oppo- 
site the  southwest  corner  of  the  ruined  Mosque  Mir- 
Zadeh.  The  interior  is  said  to  belong  to  a  later  date: 
but  the  exterior  is  thought  by  Herz  Bey  to  be  still  as 


NASIR  AND    HIS    SONS 

it  was  built  by  the  Emir,  and  it  is  of  importance  for 
the  history  of  the  development  of  the  facade. 

This  Emir  died  in  1341,  the  year  after  Nasir.  He 
was  one  of  those  ministers  who  under  the  Mameluke 
Sultans  acquired  fabulous  wealth.  A  conversation  is 
recorded  between  him  and  another  mosque-builder, 
the  Emir  Kausun,  in  which  the  latter  declared 
himself  disqualified  for  the  Sultanate  as  having 
once  sold  leather;  whereas  Beshtak  was  disquali- 
fied as  having  sold  beer.  It  is  characteristic  of  Egypt 
that  it  was  considered  a  degradation  for  a  man  in 
high  office  to  know  the  language  of  the  country. 
Beshtak,  therefore,  though  knowing  Arabic  well, 
would  never  talk  to  his  servants  except  through  a 
dragoman.  His  object  in  life  was  to  obtain  the  gov- 
ernorship of  Damascus,  and  with  this  he  eventually 
was  invested,  but  was  executed  before  he  could  enter 
upon  office. 

Maridani  is  better  known  by  the  name  Altin- 
bogha.  He  was  one  of  the  Emirs  who  took  a  great 
part  in  the  troublesome  times  that  followed  on  the 
death  of  Nasir,  and  appears  to  have  played  a  double 
game  with  Kausun;  and  eventually  he  was  sent  into 
exile  as  a  Provincial  Governor  in  Syria,  where  he 
died.  In  constructing  his  mosque  he  took  material 
from  the  Mosque  of  Rashidah,  erected  by  Hakim. 
Originally  it  was  isolated  on  all  sides;  at  a  period 
unknown,  though  not  distant,  a  house  was  built  con- 
tiguous to  the  northwest  facade.  The  surface  occu- 
pied by  it  is  said  to  be  2664  square  metres:  originally 
it  consisted  of   an   uncovered  court  surrounded   by 

[■53] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

four  liwans.  At  present  only  the  eastern  liwan  re- 
mains, containing  relics  of  finely-executed  mosaics. 

The  enumeration  given  by  the  archaeologists  of  the 
public  works  carried  on  in  Cairo  under  the  Sultan 
Nasir  is  very  lengthy.  It  includes  canals,  embank- 
ments, pools,  palaces,  exercise-grounds,  and  indeed 
every  branch  of  the  architect's  and  engineer's  art. 
The  security  produced  by  a  long  and  prosperous 
reign  led  to  a  rise  in  the  value  of  land,  w^hich  accord- 
ingly v^as  everywhere  about  the  city  cut  up  into 
building  plots.  Owing  to  the  number  of  buildings 
erected,  says  Ali  Pasha,  Cairo  became  continuous 
with  Fostat,  and  the  two  came  to  be  one  city:  from 
the  Tabar  Mosque  to  the  Vizier's  Garden  south  of 
the  Abyssinians'  Pool,  and  from  the  Nile  bank  at 
Gizeh  to  Mount  Mokattam  all  was  covered  with 
houses. 

In  the  year  1320,  which  fell  near  the  middle  of 
this  Sultan's  reign,  there  was  a  great  conflagration  in 
Cairo,  which  was  attributed  by  the  populace  to  the 
Christians.  On  May  19  of  that  year  a  number  of 
churches  in  various  Egyptian  cities  had  been  de- 
stroyed by  the  Moslems:  their  fanaticism  was  con- 
stantly aroused  by  the  invasion  of  the  public  offices 
by  Christian  secretaries,  who  for  clerical  work  were 
always  found  more  competent  than  Moslems.  The 
incendiarism  which  followed,  and  which  had  for  its 
objects  buildings  in  the  Citadel  as  well  as  the  city, 
was  attributed  to  the  resentment  of  the  Christians, 
and  it  is  asserted  that  the  Coptic  patriarch  did  not 
deny   that  his   co-religionists  were  concerned  in  it. 

'[154] 


NASIR   AND    HIS    SONS 

The  Sultan,  who  himself  favoured  the  Christians, 
did  his  utmost  to  prevent  violent  reprisals ;  but  popu- 
lar feeling  was  too  much  for  him,  and  Moslem  in- 
dignation found  vent  in  a  series  of  highly  oppressive 
enactments.  Anti-Christian  feeling  ran  so  high  that 
for  a  time  Christians  who  wished  to  appear  in  the 
streets  disguised  themselves  as  Jews;  to  show  them- 
selves in  Christian  attire  was  dangerous,  while  to  be 
caught  in  Moslem  attire  meant  certain  death.  From 
the  fact  that  these  intolerant  edicts  had  constantly  to 
be  re-enacted,  we  may  reasonably  infer  that  after  a 
very  short  time  they  fell  into  abeyance.  Whether 
there  was  any  truth  in  the  ascription  of  this  incen- 
diarism to  the  Christians  cannot  be  easily  determined. 
In  the  reign  of  Baibars  I.  a  similar  event  had  oc- 
curred, and  the  Sultan  determined  to  make  a  pyre  of 
all  the  Jews  and  Christians  that  could  be  found. 
Some  pious  persons  bargained  with  him  to  redeem 
these  victims  at  so  much  per  head,  and  the  Sultan 
made  a  considerable  sum  by  the  transaction. 

Nasir  was  succeeded  by  no  fewer  than  eight  of  his 
sons.  The  son  Abu  Bakr,  to  whom  he  at  his  death 
on  June  7,  1341,  left  the  throne,  was  able  to  maintain 
himself  on  it  for  a  few  months  only,  being  compelled 
to  abdicate  on  August  4,  1341,  in  favour  of  his  infant 
brother  Kuchuk;  the  revolution  was  brought  about 
by  Kausun.  This  person's  authority  was  soon  over- 
thrown by  a  party  formed  by  the  Syrian  prefects,  and 
on  the  following  January  11,  Ahmad,  an  elder  son, 
was  installed  in  his  place,  though  he  did  not  actually 
arrive  in  Cairo  till  November  6,  being  unwilling  to 

[155] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

leave  Kerak,  where  he  had  been  living  in  retirement. 
After  a  brief  sojourn  in  Cairo  he  speedily  returned  to 
Kerak,  thereby  forfeiting  his  throne,  which  was  con- 
ferred by  the  Emirs  on  his  brother  Isma'il.  This 
Sultan  was  mainly  occupied  during  his  short  reign 
w^ith  besieging  and  taking  Kerak,  whither  Ahmad 
had  taken  refuge,  and  himself  died  August  3,  1345, 
when  another  son  of  Nasir,  named  Sha'ban,  was 
placed  on  the  throne.  Sha'ban  proved  no  more  com- 
petent than  his  predecessors,  being  given  up  to  open 
debauchery  and  profligacy,  an  example  followed  by 
his  Emirs:  fresh  discontent  led  to  his  being  deposed 
by  the  Syrian  governors,  when  his  brother  Hajji  was 
proclaimed  Sultan  in  his  place.  Hajji  was  deposed 
and  killed  December  10,  1347,  and  another  son, 
Hasan,  who  took  his  father's  title,  proclaimed. 
Hasan's  rule  was  slightly  less  ephemeral  than  that  of 
his  predecessors,  for  he  remained  in  power  till 
August  21,  1351,  and  though  then  deposed,  he  re- 
ceived a  fresh  lease  of  sovereignty  three  years  after- 
wards, which  he  retained  for  six  years  and  a  half, 
when  he  was  finally  displaced. 

During  this  reign  Egypt  was  visited  by  the  black 
death,  which  is  said  to  have  carried  ofif  900,000  of 
!the  inhabitants  of  Cairo,  and  to  have  raged  as  far  as 
Assouan.  The  result  was  to  reduce  Cairo  to  the  pro- 
portions which  it  had  attained  before  the  time  of  the 
Sultan  Nasir.  The  plague  was  followed  by  a 
famine,  due  to  the  wholesale  destruction  of  the  agri- 
cultural population,  and  of  their  beasts,  for  these 
were  attacked  by  a  simultaneous  epidemic. 

['S6] 


NASIR   AND    HIS    SONS 

Some  of  the  Cairene  monuments  date  before 
Hasan's  resumption  of  the  sovereignty.  One  of  these 
is  the  mausoleum  of  the  Sultan  Kuchuk,  who  was 
dethroned  in  1342,  and  strangled  three  years  later. 
It  forms  part  of  the  Mosque  of  Ibrahim  Agha,  of 
which  the  present  volume  contains  several  illustra- 
tions. Ibrahim  Agha  was  not  the  founder  of  the 
mosque,  but  its  restorer:  its  founder  was  the  Emir 
Ak  Sonkor,  of  whom  three  inscriptions  remain.  The 
mosque  is  noteworthy  for  the  tiles  which  cover  the 
walls  in  parts  to  a  height  of  four  metres.  The  Emir 
who  built  it  was  a  celebrity  of  the  reign  of  Nasir, 
during  which  he  was  governor  of  a  number  of  Syrian 
cities:  finally  he  was  made  viceroy  in  Egypt  itself. 
The  last  scene  in  which  he  figures  is  one  in  which  he 
plays  rather  a  courageous  part;  when  the  sixth  of 
Nasir's  successors  came  to  the  throne  and  desired  to 
have  him  arrested,  he  drew  his  sword  and  tried  to 
attack  the  Sultan's  person ;  he  was,  however,  in  time 
overcome  and  strangled  the  following  day.  This  was 
six  weeks  after  the  mosque  had  been  inaugurated. 
Much  of  the  property  of  the  mosque  was  in  Aleppo, 
and  when  after  the  death  of  the  Sultan  Barkuk  the 
Syrian  governors  revolted,  the  revenues  accruing  to 
the  mosque  were  stopped,  whence  many  of  the  insti- 
tutions connected  with  it  fell  into  abeyance.  Appar- 
ently, however,  they  were  afterwards  restored,  or 
else  the  properties  in  Cairo  settled  upon  it  rose 
greatly  in  value,  since  Ali  Pasha  gives  them  at  a  very 
high  figure.  The  restoration  was  executed  in  1650, 
during   the   Turkish   period,    and   Ibrahim   Agha's 

[159] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

tomb  was  built  two  years  afterward,  when  Abd  al- 
Rahman  was  governor  of  Egypt.  An  inscription  to 
the  left  of  the  Kiblah  states  that  on  the  night  of  Fri- 
day, July  14,  1463,  the  Prophet  was  seen  standing 
and  praying  on  the  spot. 

The  two  tombs  in  the  mosque  are  those  of  the 
founder  and  the  restorer.  Our  artist  lingered  over 
it  because  it  is  situated  in  an  old  street,  and  the  sur- 
rounding buildings  have  not  lost  the  flavour  of 
antiquity.  Due  north  of  it  there  is  a  sebil  or  foun- 
tain, also  instituted  by  Ibrahim  Agha.  A  pond  roofed 
over,  the  roof  being  on  marble  pillars,  was  placed 
inside  this  mosque  in  the  year  1422,  the  materials 
being  taken  from  the  Mosque  of  the  Ditch, 
which  was  pulled  down  for  the  purpose,  having  been 
long  disused.  The  person  who  was  responsible  for 
this  proceeding  had  the  name  Toghan. 

One  or  two  more  monuments  belong  to  the  period 
of  the  Sultan  Hasan,  besides  the  magnificent  build- 
ing that  bears  his  name,  and  claims  to  be  one  of  the 
great  mosques  of  the  world.  Such  is  the  mosque  of 
the  Emir  Shaikho,  with  a  monastery  facing  it,  to  the 
west  of  the  Rumailah  Place.  This  part  of  the  city 
is  outside  the  old  square  of  Jauhar,  and  in  the  region 
called  of  old  Kata'i:  various  houses  were  bought  by 
the  founder  of  these  two  edifices,  and  pulled  down  to 
make  room  for  it.  He  was  one  of  the  temporary 
rulers  of  Egypt  who  rose  from  honour  to  honour, 
and  at  one  time  is  said  to  have  received  from  his 
various  estates  the  sum  of  200,000  dirhems  daily.  He 
perished,  finally,  at  the  hand  of  an  assassin,  a  man 

[160] 


NASIR  AND    HIS    SONS 

who,  being  denied  the  promotion  for  which  he  had 
petitioned,  revenged  himself  by  a  murderous  assault 
on  the  Emir.  The  mosque  was  built  In  the  year  1349, 
and  a  company  of  Sufis  at  the  first  maintained  there; 
six  years  afterwards  the  hospice  was  built  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  road,  and  special  residences  pro- 
vided there  for  the  ascetics  who  were  transferred 
thither  from  the  mosque.  Nevertheless,  the  object 
and  the  external  appearance  of  the  two  buildings 
being  very  similar,  it  has  often  been  a  matter  of  doubt 
which  was  meant  to  be  mosque  and  which  hospice. 
The  inscription  on  the  front  entrance  of  the  hospice 
is  couched,  M.  van  Berchem  observes,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Sufis  or  ascetics,  and  care  Is  taken  therein 
to  avoid  the  pompous  titles  which  the  Emir  who 
founded  the  building  could  have  claimed.  Indeed, 
the  hospice  seems  to  have  been  built  by  him  in  an 
access  of  religious  fervour,  such  as  would  be  accom- 
panied by  self-abasement.  He  was  burled  In  his 
hospice  with  great  pomp,  the  ceremony  being  con- 
ducted by  the  Sultan  Hasan  himself;  and  nature,  to 
exhibit  her  sympathy  with  the  people  of  Cairo  in 
their  bereavement,  produced  a  slight  earthquake, 
and  equally  strange,  a  shower  of  rain,  though  It  was 
summer.  At  the  time  of  the  final  downfall  of  the 
Mameluke  dynasty,  when  Tuman  Bai  was  attacked  by 
the  Sultan  Selim,  the  former  took  up  his  headquar- 
ters in  the  Hospice  of  Shaikho;  fire  was  accordingly 
set  to  the  building  by  the  Ottomans,  and  a  consider- 
able part  of  it  burned  down.  The  preacher  of  the 
mosque  was  brought  before  the  Sultan  Salim,  who  at 

[i6r] 


CAIRO,    JERUSALEM,    AND    DAMASCUS 

first  determined  on  his  execution,  but  afterwards 
thought  fit  to  pardon  him.  The  mischief  that  had 
been  done  was  then  speedily  repaired.  A  restoration 
of  both  mosque  and  hospice  is  recorded  for  the  year 
1816. 

The  great  monument  of  this  time,  however,  is  the 
mosque  of  the  Sultan  Hasan,  on  the  right  hand  of  the 
Boulevard  Mohammed  Ali,  at  the  end  which  looks 
towards  the  Citadel.  It  covers  an  area  of  8525  square 
metres;  a  magnificent  gate  situated  at  the  north  angle 
gives  access  to  a  vestibule  covered  by  a  dome,  which 
rests  on  a  crown  of  stalactites.  Turning  in  a  south- 
east direction,  after  a  detour,  we  reach  the  Court  of 
the  Mosque.  The  middle  of  this  is  occupied  by  a 
fountain.  In  front  is  the  great  Liwan,  with  the 
prayer-niche,  the  pulpit  and  the  dikkah;  to  the  left, 
the  right  and  behind,  are  three  other  oratories.  The 
site  had  been  formerly  occupied  by  the  house  of  the 
Emir  Yelbogha.  The  mosque  was  begun  in  the  year 
1356,  and  took  three  years  to  build,  20,000  dirhems 
being  each  day  devoted  to  the  cost  of  the  operations. 
The  Sultan  would  have  desisted  from  the  undertak- 
ing when  he  learned  to  what  the  expense  would 
amount,  had  it  not  been  that  he  regarded  it  as  un- 
worthy of  a  Sultan  of  Egypt  to  desist  from  an  enter- 
prise that  had  been  once  begun.  The  chief  court 
measures  sixty-five  yards  by  sixty-five ;  the  great  dome 
was  thought  to  have  no  rival  in  any  Islamic  city,  and 
the  marble  of  the  pulpit  is  of  unequalled  beauty. 
Originally  the  architect  had  planned  four  minarets: 
one,  however,  that  had  been  erected  over  the  portal 

[162] 


NASIR   AND    HIS    SONS 

fell,  in  the  course  of  building,  burying  under  it  some 
three  hundred  persons:  the  Sultan  therefore  con- 
tented himself  with  the  two  that  are  still  standing. 

The  Mosque  of  the  Sultan  Hasan  plays  a  more  im- 
portant part  than  any  other  in  the  political  history  of 
Cairo,  for  owing  to  its  proximity  to  the  Citadel  and 
to  its  enormous  size,  it  could  be  regularly  employed 
as  a  counter-citadel,  and  on  the  occasion  of  any  civil 
war,  it  was  usually  so  used  by  the  force  which 
aimed  at  dislodging  the  inmates  of  the  Citadel  itself. 
The  Sultan  Barkuk  destroyed  the  perron  in  front  of 
the  mosque,  as  well  as  the  staircases  which  led  up  to 
the  minarets,  and  blocked  up  the  front  door.  A  side 
door  was  opened  in  one  of  the  law-schools,  which,  as 
usual,  surround  the  main  court,  to  enable  worship- 
pers to  enter  and  use  the  mosque;  but  the  means  of 
ascending  the  roof  and  the  minarets  were  taken 
away. 

The  bronze  door,  which  was  regarded  as  of  un- 
rivalled beauty,  was  afterwards  purchased  for  a 
comparatively  small  sum  by  the  founder  of  the 
Muayyad  Mosque,  which  alone  rivals  it  in  impor- 
tance. In  142 1,  in  the  reign  of  Barsbai,  the  innova- 
tions of  Barkuk  were  cancelled;  the  perron,  minaret 
staircases  and  the  original  entrance  were  restored 
and  a  bronze  door  was  introduced  in  place  of  that 
which  had  been  removed.  This  portal  seems  to  have 
been  again  closed  in  the  year  1639,  and  reopened  150 
years  later.  Of  the  two  minarets  erected  by  the 
founder,  the  eastern  fell  in  the  year  1659,  and  was 
rebuilt  on  a  smaller  scale  than  the  original.     The 

[163] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

cupola  of  which  Makrizi  speaks  so  admiringly  col- 
lapsed in  the  following  year,  and  was  replaced  by 
the  existing  dome  under  the  government  of  Ibrahim 
Pasha.  The  account  of  the  condition  of  the  building 
given  in  the  report  of  the  Committee  for  1894  is  ex- 
ceedingly gloomy.  Since  then,  large  sums  have  been 
spent  in  effecting  a  worthy  restoration. 

Ali  Pasha  gives  at  length  the  document  in  which 
various  properties  were  settled  on  the  mosque  by  the 
Sultan  and  here  as  in  the  case  of  al-Azhar  the  most 
trivial  details  were  provided,  and  money  lavished  on 
each.  A  couple  of  physicians  with  a  surgeon  were 
appointed  to  treat  such  of  the  officials  or  students  as 
were  invalided;  provision  was  made  for  a  number  of 
orphans  to  be  educated  and  outfitted  when  they 
reached  maturity:  and  in  the  list  of  religious  and 
other  officials  we  find  specialisation  carried  to  an 
extent  previously  unknown.  These  vast  revenues 
have  for  the  most  part  disappeared.  In  Ali  Pasha's 
time  the  whole  institution  possessed  a  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds  a  year,  which  was  devoted  to  the  pay- 
ment of  salaries  and  partly  to  upkeep  and  repairs. 

Twenty-two  years  after  the  completion  of  the 
mosque,  which  took  place  two  years  after  the 
founder's  death,  his  tomb  was  erected  and  inscribed; 
it  is  thought  that  the  exact  spot  where  he  lay  may 
have  been  then  unknown. 

After  the  second  dethronement  and  subsequent 
murder  of  the  Sultan  Hasan,  a  son  of  his  dethroned 
brother  Hajji  was  proclaimed;  but  on  May  29,  1363, 
this  Sultan  also  was  deposed  on  the  ground  of  incom- 

[164] 


NASIR  AND    HIS    SONS 

petence,  and  his  place  given  to  another  grandson  of 
Nasir,  Sha'ban,  who  at  the  time  was  ten  years  old. 
His  reign  was  rather  longer  than  that  of  his  pred- 
ecessors, and  it  was  not  until  March  15,  1376,  that 
he  was  murdered  by  the  Mamelukes,  for  refusing  a 
largess  of  money  which  they  demanded.  To  the 
right  of  the  street  leading  to  the  Citadel  there  is  to 
be  found  the  Mosque  of  this  Sultan,  the  founder's 
inscription  dating  from  the  year  1369.  It  contains 
a  wonderful  plenitude  of  titles,  among  which  the 
most  remarkable  is  that  of  "  master  of  the  Isma'ilian 
fortresses  and  the  Alexandrian  frontiers."  The  con- 
quest of  the  Assassins,  who  played  so  ominous  a  part 
in  Oriental  politics,  was  an  achievement  of  which 
the  Sultan  Baibars  was  justly  proud;  the  remnant  of 
the  sect  were,  however,  under  the  protection  of  the 
Egyptian  Sultans,  and  every  now  and  then  they  were 
required  to  supply  persons  ready  to  discharge  the 
function  which  won  them  their  former  fame.  The 
mention  of  Alexandria  is  due  to  the  fact  that  in  1365 
the  King  of  Cyprus  thought  fit  to  make  a  raid  on 
Alexandria,  which  he  took  and  sacked;  his  success 
was  only  momentary,  for  an  Egyptian  army  was 
speedily  sent  to  the  relief  of  the  maritime  capital,  and 
the  Franks  fled  with  their  plunder  before  it  arrived. 
The  Sultan,  however,  decided  to  garrison  Alexandria 
with  a  stronger  force  than  before. 

The  popular  name  for  this  Mosque  is  "  the  Sul- 
tan's Mother";  or  ''Queen  Barakah,"  to  whom  it 
was  dedicated  by  the  Sultan.  The  meaning  of  such 
a  dedication  probably  is  that  the  Sultan  assigned  to 

[167] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

her  the  merit  that  he  had  acquired  by  the  founda- 
tion. She  was  afterwards  buried  under  the  cupola. 
A  tomb  that  by  popular  tradition  is  supposed  to  con- 
tain the  Queen's  remains  is  shown  by  an  inscription 
to  belong  to  a  princess  Zahrah,  whose  name  the 
chroniclers  do  not  appear  to  know.  The  Sultan 
himself  is  said  to  repose  in  this  mosque,  though  his 
corpse  went  through  some  vicissitudes  before  it 
reached  its  final  resting-place.  After  his  assassina- 
tion it  was  thrown  into  a  well,  whence  it  was  presently 
rescued  to  be  interred  near  the  sanctuary  of  the  Say- 
yidah  Nefisah;  a  slave  transferred  it  thence  to  the 
mosque  that  bears  his  mother's  name. 

The  Mosque  or  School  of  the  Emir  Al-Jai  con- 
tains the  grave  of  the  minister  after  whom  It  is 
named,  and  who  was  the  husband  of  the  Princess 
Barakah.  After  the  death  of  the  Queen  he  disputed 
with  the  Sultan  her  son  over  the  succession  to  her 
property,  fought  some  battles,  and  being  compelled 
to  flee  from  Egypt  was  drowned  while  attempting 
to  cross  the  Nile  on  horseback.  His  body  was  fished 
up  by  divers,  and  was  interred  in  the  Mosque  which 
he  had  built,  north  of  the  Mosque  of  the  Sultan 
Hasan.  As  usual  copious  revenues  were  settled  upon 
it,  and  courses  instituted  for  two  of  the  orthodox 
schools  of  law. 

After  the  murder  of  this  Sultan  an  infant  son  of 
his  named  Ali  was  set  on  the  throne,  and  eventually 
the  highest  offices  in  the  state  came  into  the  hands 
of  two  praetorians,  Barakah  and  Barkuk,  of  whom 
the  latter  ere  long  succeeded  in  ousting  the  former, 

[i68] 


NASIR  AND    HIS    SONS 

and  usurping  the  Sultan's  place.  On  May  19,  1381, 
when  the  Sultan  Ali  died,  his  place  was  given  to  an 
infant  brother  Hajji;  but  on  November  26,  1382, 
Barkuk  set  this  child  aside,  and  had  himself  pro- 
claimed Sultan,  thereby  ending  the  Bahri  dynasty, 
and  commencing  that  of  the  Burjis  or  Circassians. 


[169] 


THE    EARLY    CIRCASSIAN    MAMELUKES 

^^^^^HE  reign  of  Barkuk,  who  was  the  first  of 
M  C^  the  Circassians  to  displace  the  family  of 
^  J  Kala'un,  was  exceedingly  troublous,  since 
^^■^^  many  of  the  Emirs  aspired  to  do  as  he  had 
done.  Indeed,  after  seven  years  he  was  actually  com- 
pelled to  abdicate  and  allow  his  predecessor  Hajji  to 
be  restored  to  the  throne  under  the  tutelage  of  another 
Emir,  Kerak  being,  as  usual,  the  place  of  retirement 
for  the  ousted  sovereign.  Before  this  calamity  he 
had  taken  care  to  perpetuate  his  name  by  a  mosque 
or  school  in  the  ancient  Nahhassin  Street,  between 
the  Hospital  of  Kala'un  and  the  Kamili5ryah  School. 
It  is  called  the  New  Zahiriyyah,  to  distinguish  it 
from  the  foundation  of  the  Sultan  Baibars  I.,  who 
also  bore  the  title  Zahir;  only  in  the  case  of  Barkuk 
it  is  said  to  have  been  taken  with  the  signification 
''  midday  ruler,"  because  he  happened  to  be  pro- 
claimed Sultan  at  midday,  whereas  his  predecessor 
had  meant  nothing  more  definite  by  it  than  "  con- 
queror." This  building,  which  has  a  right  to  the 
names  mosque,  school  and  hospice — since  it  was  origi- 
nally intended  to  harbour  a  number  of  Sufis — is  re- 

[170] 


THE   EARLY   CIRCASSIAN   MAMELUKES 

markable  for  the  long  corridors  and  large  vestibules 
which  have  to  be  traversed  before  arriving  at  the 
main  court;  for  the  arcades  which,  set  at  an  equal 
distance  from  the  north  and  south  walls  of  the  court, 
divide  it  into  three  portions;  and  for  the  coloured 
marbles  which  to  a  height  of  six  metres  cover  the 
wall  which  contains  the  Kiblah.  The  tomb  which 
adjoins  the  building  is  thought  to  contain  the  remains 
of  a  daughter  of  the  Sultan  who  died  in  infancy  in 
1386,  before  the  completion  of  the  building;  at  a 
later  period  the  remains  of  different  members  of  his 
family  were  brought  together  and  buried  in  the  same 
spot.  He  himself,  of  course,  lies  in  the  vast  mauso- 
leum built  for  him  in  the  desert  by  his  son  Faraj. 
The  Minbar  is  the  gift  of  the  Sultan  Jakmak,  who 
reigned  from  1438  to  1453;  a  door  plated  with 
bronze,  which  originally  belonged  to  some  part  of 
the  institution,  was  at  one  time  in  the  possession  of 
an  Armenian  dealer  in  the  Mouski. 

Owing  to  the  ever-increasing  popularity  of  al- 
Azhar,  the  lectures  which  were  originally  to  have,* 
been  given  in  this  building  have  long  ceased;  but 
this,  says  AH  Pasha,  is  the  case  with  the  greater  num- 
ber of  the  schools  and  colleges  founded  in  Cairo. 
Indeed,  it  is  clear  that  far  more  of  these  buildings 
were  erected  than  bore  any  relation  to  either  the 
spiritual  or  educational  needs  of  the  people.  Sul- 
tans and  Emirs  thought  this  the  proper  line  for  them 
to  follow,  and  in  founding  schools  and  hospices 
merely  did  as  others  had  done. 

To  Egyptians  Barkuk  is  a  monarch  of  interest,  as 

[171] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

having  abolished  the  old  "  bank-holiday  "  with  which 
the  Coptic  New  Year's  Day  was  celebrated.  The 
description  which  the  historians  give  of  it  resembles 
the  English  bank-holiday  in  some  particulars,  while 
it  has  some  features  which  we  do  not  attempt  to  re- 
produce. "  On  that  day  the  rabble  of  Cairo  used  to 
gather  together  at  the  doors  of  the  great;  the  Master 
of  the  Ceremonies  used  to  make  out  receipts  for  large 
sums,  and  any  magnate  who  refused  to  pay  them  had 
to  endure  a  volley  of  abuse.  A  picket  would  be 
stationed  at  his  door,  and  refused  to  leave  it  till  he 
had  paid  the  sum  assigned  him  by  the  Master,  which 
was  taken  from  him  by  violence.  The  lazy  crowd 
would  stand  in  the  streets  and  besprinkle  each  other 
with  dirty  water,  throw  raw  eggs  in  each  other's 
faces  and  interchange  missiles  of  mats  and  shoes. 
All  the  streets  were  blocked  and  traffic  stopped. 
Houses  and  shops  were  all  locked  up,  and  any  person 
found  in  the  market,  whatever  his  eminence  or 
station,  would  be  rudely  accosted,  besprinkled  with 
dirty  water,  pelted  with  raw  eggs  and  buffeted  with 
shoes.  Neither  buying  nor  selling  was  permitted, 
and  the  people  drank  wine  and  committed  other  im- 
proprieties in  places  of  public  recreation.  The 
brawling  that  ensued  led  to  the  loss  of  many  lives." 
A  more  pleasant  feature  of  the  celebration  was  that 
people  sent  each  other  presents  of  fruit — pomegran- 
ates, almonds,  quinces,  apples,  dates,  grapes,  melons, 
figs,  peaches,  pots  of  chicken  jelly,  barrels  of  rose- 
water,  trays  of  Cairene  sweets. 

Barkuk,  whose  name  means  Apricot,  and  had  to  be 
[172] 


THE   EARLY   CIRCASSIAN   MAMELUKES 

banished  from  the  fruiterers'  vocabulary  so  long  as 
he  reigned,  made  a  sort  of  alliance  with  the  Otto- 
man Sultan  Bayazid,  and  incurred  the  wrath  of  his 
enemy  the  terrible  Timur  Lenk,  who  at  this  time  was 
desolating  the  East.  In  order  that  there  might  be 
no  truce,  he  proceeded  to  murder  the  envoy  of  the  %^ 
Mongol  world-conqueror — a  proceeding  which  at 
this  time  was  normal  in  Oriental  diplomacy.  The 
great  encounter  with  Timur,  however,  was  postponed 
until  the  following  reign. 

A  monument  of  the  time  of  Barkuk  is  the  school  of 
the  Emir  Inal  al-Yusufi,  south  of  the  Bab  Zuwailah. 
The  inscription  w^hich  records  the  name  of  the 
founder  is  on  the  neip-hbourinff  fountain,  and  is  of  _^ 
mterest,  accordmg  to  van  Berchem,  as  bemg  the 
earliest  example  of  a  poetical  distich  inscribed  on  a 
fountain,  to  which  in  later  times  there  were  many 
parallels. 

The  founder  was  a  celebrity  of  the  time,  who  held 
various  offices  and  enjoyed  many  honours.  He 
figures  on  the  stage  first  about  the  time  when  Barkuk 
was  aiming  at  the  sovereignty.  Being  in  command 
of  an  army  corps,  he  seized  the  Citadel,  and  endeav- 
oured to  maintain  it  in  the  Sultan  Hajji's  name,  but 
was  outwitted  by  Barkuk,  who  got  into  the  fortress 
by  a  secret  door.  He  was  afterwards  able  to  secure 
Barkuk's  favour,  and  was  appointed  to  the  governor- 
ship of  various  cities  in  Syria;  this  mode  of  employ- 
ment constituting,  as  indeed  it  still  does,  an  honour- 
able form  of  banishment.  As  governor  of  Aleppo 
he  took  the  side  of  Barkuk  against  Yelbogha,  who  in 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

the  year  1389  raised  the  standard  of  revolt,  but  was 
defeated  and  imprisoned.  Nor  was  he  released  till 
Yelbogha,  who  for  a  time  had  obtained  the  mastery 
in  Cairo,  had  been  expelled  by  another  Emir  Min- 
tash,  and  this  Emir  was  in  his  turn  overthrown  by 
'  Barkuk,  who  again  resumed  the  sovereignty.  His 
mosque  was  commenced  in  1392  and  finished  the  next 
year,  after  the  founder's  death.  His  body,  which 
had  been  temporarily  interred  outside  Cairo,  was 
then  brought  to  the  resting-place  which  he  had  pre- 
pared for  it. 

The  uncertainty  which  attached  to  the  post  of  Sul- 
tan apparently  had  at  this  time  the  rather  remark- 
able effect  of  making  the  rival  usurpers  more  lenient 
I  and  forgiving  towards  each  other.  Barkuk,  when 
'  caught  by  his  enemy  Yelbogha,  had  been  honour- 
ably treated,  and  though  condign  punishment  had 
been  threatened  to  anyone  who  harboured  him,  the 
person  found  guilty  of  this  act  was,  in  fact,  praised 
and  rewarded.  When  Barkuk  in  his  turn  got  Yel- 
bogha in  his  power,  the  restored  Sultan  gave  him  an 
honourable  place  in  the  court  at  which  he  had  for  a 
time  been  virtually  supreme. 

To  the  time  of  Barkuk  belongs  the  Khan  Khalili, 
now  a  famous  and  familiar  place  of  merchandise. 
Its  site  is  that  part  of  the  ancient  Fatimide  Palace 
where  the  Caliphs  used  to  be  buried.     Chaharkas, 
S^   ^  master  of  the  stable  to  Barkuk,  becoming  possessed 

of  the  site,  had  the  remains  of  the  Fatimide  Caliphs 
exhumed,  and  carried  on  asses'  backs  to  the  Barkiy- 
yah  Gate,  where  they  were  flung  on  dunghills,  this. 

[176] 


V* 


AN   OLD    IIOLSE   NEAR   THE   TENTMAKERS    UAZAAR.   CAIRO. 


THE   EARLY   CIRCASSIAN   MAMELUKES 

being  his  mode  of  showing  his  contempt  for  dead 
heretics:  an  act  of  fanaticism  for  which,  if  Makrizi 
may  be  believed,  he  was  afterwards  punished  by  be-    ^ 
ing  allowed  to  remain  naked  and  unburied  outside 
the  walls  of  Damascus. 

When  Barkuk  died  in  1398,  according  to  the  cus- 
tom that  had  so  often  proved  disastrous,  his  son, 
Faraj,  a  lad  aged  thirteen,  was  appointed  his  succes-      '^1  ^u\^c^ 
sor  under  the  guardianship  of  two  Emirs.     In  the  ' 

three  years  that  followed  the  Egyptian  dominions  in 
Asia  were  in  consequence  swallowed  up  partly  by  the 
Ottoman  Sultan,  and  partly  by  the  terrible  Timur, 
whose  demand  for  homage  was  granted  in  1402  by 
the  Egyptian  government,  when  the  princes  who  had 
sought  refuge  from  the  world-conqueror  in  Egypt 
were  also  delivered  up.  The  death  of  Timur  in  the  Ta^^uv^.u^ 
beginning  of  1405  restored  Egyptian  authority  in 
Syria,  which,  however,  became  a  rendezvous  for  all 
who  were  discontented  with  the  rule  of  Faraj  and  his 
Emirs,  and  two  months  after  Timur's  death  was  in 
open  rebellion  against  Faraj.  He  succeeded  indeed 
in  defeating  the  rebels,  but  was  compelled  by  in- 
subordination on  the  part  of  his  Circassian  Mame- 
lukes to  abdicate,  when  his  brother  was  proclaimed 
Sultan  in  his  place.  This  brother  was,  however, 
deposed  after  two  months,  and  Faraj,  who  had  been 
in  hiding,  was  recalled.  Most  of  his  reign  was  oc- 
cupied with  revolts  on  the  part  of  Syrian  governors, 
in  order  to  quell  which  he  frequently  visited  Syria. 
Among  the  leaders  of  the  rebels  was  Sheik  Mah- 
mudi,   afterwards   Sultan   in   Egypt,   with   the   title 

[  179] 


f  ^  o*^ 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

Mua}^ad.  Owing  to  the  disturbance  and  misgov- 
ernment  the  population  of  Syria  and  Egypt  is  said  to 
have  shrunk  in  the  time  of  Faraj  to  one-third  of  what 
it  had  been  before,  and  the  Sultan  violated  Moslem 
sentiment  not  only  by  debauchery,  but  even  more 
by  having  his  image  stamped  on  coins. 

The  reign  of  Faraj,  though  politically  disastrous^ 
is  perpetuated  in  Egypt  by  several  notable  buildings. 
One  of  these  is  the  school  of  the  Emir  Jamal  al-din 
Yusuf  in  the  Jamaliyyah  Street.  It  is  sometimes 
called  the  "  Suspended  Mosque,"  a  name  given  to 
any  such  building  to  which  there  is  access  by  a  flight 
of  stairs.  The  place  was  originally  a  store.  When 
the  Emir  began  to  turn  it  into  a  mosque  and  school, 
he  utilised  materials  purchased  by  him  for  a  trifling 
sum  from  the  Sultan  Hajji,  who  for  a  time  displaced 
Barkuk,  and  which  had  formed  the  furniture  of  the 
mosque  of  the  Sultan  Sha'ban  on  the  Citadel.  The 
sums  settled  on  teachers  and  pupils  in  this  school 
seem  to  have  been  specially  handsome — 300  francs  a 
month  for  each  of  the  former,  and  thirty  with  rations 
for  each  of  the  latter.  The  teachers  at  al-Azhar 
have  to  be  contented  still  with  pay  on  the  latter  scale. 

This  generosity  had,  however,  been  provided  by 
gross  extortion.  Moreover  by  a  method  adopted  by 
many  in  Egypt  the  interest  on  the  benefactions  was 
settled  on  the  founder's  family  in  perpetuity.  Be- 
fore the  Mosque  was  completed,  the  Emir  Yusuf  was 
imprisoned  and  executed  by  the  Sultan,  who,  as 
usual,  confiscated  the  property.  His  first  idea  was 
to  destroy  the  new  building;  but  being  warned  by 

[180] 


THE   EARLY   CIRCASSIAN   MAMELUKES 

the  legal  authorities  that  such  an  act  would  leave  a 
painful  impression  on  the  people,  he  preferred  the 
alternative  of  appropriating  it,  and  having  his  own 
name  inscribed  instead  of  Yusuf's.  This  was  there- 
fore carried  out.  The  name  of  the  Sultan  Faraj  was 
placed  at  the  summit  of  the  walls  which  bound  the 
central  court,  on  the  chandeliers,  carpets  and  ceilings. 
However,  the  name  of  Faraj  no  longer  appears  there, 
nor  indeed  in  the  solitary  inscription  round  the  court 
w^hich  is  the  only  inscription  that  remains.  It  would 
appear  that  after  the  death  of  Faraj  the  brother  of 
the  founder  succeeded  in  recovering  control  of  the 
institution,  with  possession  of  the  benefactions,  and 
he  probably  had  the  name  of  Faraj  removed.  The 
document  in  virtue  of  which  this  brother  had  got 
possession  of  the  institution  was  afterwards  demon- 
strated to  be  a  forgery,  and  the  control  was  restored 
to  the  court  official  who  by  the  will  of  the  first 
founder  was  to  have  charge  of  it. 

The  great  mausoleum  in  the  cemetery  called  the 
Tombs  of  the  Caliphs,  which  is  named  after  Barkuk, 
is  the  work  of  the  Sultan  Faraj.  The  popular  ascrip- 
tion is  so  far  right  that  Barkuk  is  actually  buried  in 
the  mosque,  and  that  the  building  was  ordered  by 
that  Sultan  though  achieved  by  his  son.  The  in- 
scriptions which  it  contains  furnish  a  series  of  dates 
from  1398  to  1483,  the  earliest  being  that  on  a  marble 
column  in  front  of  the  Sultan  Barkuk's  tomb  in  the 
north  mausoleum,  which,  however,  merely  records 
the  time  of  his  death;  the  latest  being  that  of  the  Sul- 
tan Kayetbai,  on  the  marble  pulpit  in  the  sanctuary 

[181] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

of  the  monastery.  Barkuk's  tomb  was  not  finished 
till  nine  years  after  his  death.  Other  persons  buried 
in  the  building  are  his  son  Abd  al-Aziz,  whose  short 
reign  interrupted  that  of  Faraj ;  "  a  young  man," 
probably  a  son  of  Faraj,  who  himself  died  at  Damas- 
cus; and  one  of  his  daughters,  the  princess  Shakra. 

The  so-called  Tombs  of  the  Caliphs  occupy  a 
cemetery  first  used  in  Fatimide  times,  when  Badr  al- 
Jamali,  a  famous  personage  of  that  period,  erected 
himself  a  tomb  north  of  the  hill  on  which  the  Citadel 
was  afterwards  built.  The  region  became  popular 
and  fashionable  for  this  purpose.  The  fact  of  vari- 
ous saints  being  buried  there  was  probably  what  sug- 
gested to  Barkuk  to  have  his  mausoleum  in  the  same 
place.  He  died  without  having  commenced  to  build 
it;  his  son  set  about  the  filial  duty  at  once,  and  it  took 
twelve  years  to  complete. 

Another  monument  of  the  Sultan  Faraj  is  a  school, 
called  by  the  modest  name  Zawiyah  (literally 
"  Cell,")  a  little  to  the  south  of  the  Bab  Zuwailah. 
V  It  is  usually  known  as  the  Zawiyat  al-Duheshah,  the 
latter  word  signifying  Hall  or  Court.  Over  it  are 
rooms  the  rental  of  which  was  settled  on  the  school. 
The  school  or  mosque  itself  has  a  kiblah  of  coloured 
marble.  Close  by  it  is  a  fountain  with  a  maktab,  or 
school  for  the  young  above  it,  also  the  foundation  of 
the  same  Sultan. 

The  causes  of  the  frequent  change  of  rulers  from 
the  time  of  Barkuk  to  the  end  of  the  Circassian 
dynasty  are  not  always  intelligible;  in  the  case  of 
Faraj  they  appear  to  have  been  notorious  incompe- 

[182] 


THE   EARLY   CIRCASSIAN   MAMELUKES 

tence  displayed  at  a  period  wtien  the  Moslem  world 
was  confronted  in  the  person  of  Timur  with  an  enemy 
who  threatened  to  exterminate  it.  His  career  was 
closed  by  a  general  revolt  of  the  Syrian  Emirs,  who 
defeated  him  at  the  battle  of  Lajun  in  May,  141 2.  A 
document  was  drawn  up  by  the  judges  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  victors  declaring  Faraj  a  murderer  and 
debauchee  who  was  unfit  to  reign;  and  that  there 
might  be  no  jealousy  between  the  two  Emirs  who 
were  chiefly  responsible  for  his  downfall,  they  agreed 
to  install  as  Sultan  the  Caliph  Musta'in  while  the  two 
Emirs  were  to  have  separate  spheres  of  influence. 
More  than  a  century  and  a  half,  then,  since  the  ter- 
mination of  Abbasid  rule  in  Baghdad,  a  descendant, 
or  at  least  a  professed  descendant  of  the  imperial 
family  was  given  something  more  than  a  nominal 
position  at  the  head  of  the  chief  Moslem  state.  He 
did  not  apparently  much  believe  in  his  good  fortune; 
and  before  investiture  as  Sultan  stipulated  that,  if  he 
were  forced  to  abdicate,  he  might  resume  his  nominal 
dignity  of  Caliph.  This  stipulation  turned  out  to  be 
very  necessary,  although  it  was  not  observed;  at  the 
end  of  less  than  six  months  the  Emir  to  whom  Egypt 
had  fallen.  Sheik  Mahmudi,  desired  the  title  as  well 
as  the  rights  of  Sultan,  and  easily  obtained  a  declara- 
tion from  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  that  a  man  of 
business  was  wanted  at  the  head  of  affairs.  The  Ab- 
basid was  therefore  deposed  from  his  Sultanate,  and 
soon  after  was  deprived  of  the  title  of  Caliph  also. 
Naturally  the  new  Sultan  had  to  fight  the  colleague 
whose  sphere  of  influence  was  to  have  been  Syria, 

[185] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

and  who  refused  to  recognise  any  overlord  but  the 
Caliph.  But  Sheik  Mahmudi,  now  called  the  Sul- 
tan Muayyad,  appears  to  have  been  a  capable  gen- 
eral, and  in  the  course  of  several  campaigns  he 
reduced  Syria  to  complete  subjection,  captured  his 
rival  Nauruz,  "  who  had  been  to  him  more  than  a 
brother  and  reposed  his  head  on  the  same  pillow," 
and  sent  his  head  to  be  exposed  on  the  Bab  Zuwailah. 
With  the  Bab  Zuwailah  this  Sultan  was  otherwise 
connected,  for  he  had  in  the  time  of  Faraj  been  im- 
prisoned in  the  Shama'il  gaol,  which  adjoined  it. 
To  commemorate  his  imprisonment  and  subsequent 
promotion,  he  determined  to  erect  on  the  site  of  this 
prison  a  mosque  which  should  bear  his  name,  in  ful- 
filment of  a  vow  that  he  made  when  confined  therein 
and  suflfering  from  the  vermin  which  infested  the 
place.  The  mosque  was  commenced  three  years  after 
his  elevation;  no  forced  labour  was  employed  in 
the  construction,  all  workmen  being  honourably  re- 
munerated; only  the  marble  slabs  and  columns  were 
taken  from  a  variety  of  older  buildings  which  had  to 
be  pulled  down.  In  two  years'  time  the  eastern 
liwan  was  finished,  and  the  Friday  prayer  was  cele- 
brated there.  Before  this  the  Sultan  had  endowed 
the  institution  with  a  rich  library,  taken  from  the  old 
library  of  the  Citadel,  and  so  perhaps  containing 
some  volumes  that  had  once  belonged  to  the  Fatimide 
collection,  to  which  a  certain  Barizi,  whose  house  at 
Boulak  the  Sultan  was  in  the  habit  of  visiting,  added 
500  volumes,  to  the  value,  we  are  told,  of  10,000  dinars, 
securing  to  himself  and  his  descendants  by  this  gift 

[186] 


THE   EARLY   CIRCASSIAN   MAMELUKES 

the  office  of  librarian.  In  order  to  find  place  for 
the  lavatory  some  dwellings  were  purchased  and  de- 
molished by  the  vizier,  whose  own  foundation  will 
next  be  mentioned.  The  minarets  of  the  new  mosque 
were  built  on  the  flanking  towers  of  the  Bab  Zu- 
wailah;  one  of  them,  soon  after  erection,  was  found 
to  be  out  of  the  perpendicular,  and  its  demolition  was 
ordered  by  the  architect.  In  the  course  of  this  opera- 
tion a  stone  fell  and  killed  one  of  the  passers-by,  in 
consequence  whereof  the  gate  was  closed  for  thirty 
days,  "  the  like  whereof  had  not  happened  since 
Cairo  was  built."  The  cupolas  which  cover  the 
graves  of  a  daughter  of  the  Sultan,  buried  before  the 
first  service  had  been  held  in  the  mosque,  and  the 
Sultan  himself  with  his  son  Ibrahim  w^ere  finished  at 
different  times,  both  after  142 1,  the  year  of  the  Sul- 
tan's death. 

The  story  of  this  Ibrahim  throws  a  painful  light 
on  the  builder  of  the  mosque  and  its  first  librarian 
and  preacher.  The  year  before  the  Sultan's  death 
he  became  so  infirm  that  when  he  wanted  to  move 
he  had  to  be  carried  on  the  shoulders  of  his  slaves. 
The  preacher  told  him  that  the  army  was  tired  of  a 
paralysed  Sultan,  and  were  turning  their  regards  to 
his  strong  and  gallant  son.  The  best  plan,  he  sug- 
gested, was  to  get  rid  of  this  rival  by  poison.  The 
advice  was  followed;  but  on  the  following  Friday 
the  Sultan  came  to  hear  a  funeral  sermon  preached 
over  his  victim  in  the  mosque  which  contained  his 
remains.  The  preacher,  with  the  view  of  diverting 
suspicion  from  his  master,  delivered  an  affecting  dis- 

[187] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

course,  telling  how  the  Prophet  late  in  life  had  him- 
self lost  a  son  of  the  same  name,  Ibrahim,  and  quot- 
ing the  affecting  and  noble  words  of  grief  and 
resignation  with  which  the  founder  of  Islam  bore  the 
blow.  What  was  intended  to  clear  the  Sultan's  fame 
was  regarded  by  him  as  a  reproach;  he  determined 
then  to  get  rid  of  the  preacher  by  the  same  means  as 
had  carried  off  his  son,  and  invited  him  to  a  meal, 
from  the  effects  of  which  he  died  in  a  few  days'  time. 

The  mosque  rises  about  five  metres  above  the  level 
of  the  street;  in  the  time  of  Isma'il  Pasha  the  whole 
building  with  the  exception  of  the  wall  containing 
the  Kiblah  was  in  ruins.  During  his  government  it 
was  restored,  and  various  repairs  have  at  different 
times  been  executed  by  order  of  the  Committee.  An 
inscription  in  the  sanctuary  records  some  restorations 
done  by  order  of  Ibrahim  Pasha,  son  of  Mohammed 
Ali,  and  some  are  recorded  as  having  been  executed 
under  a  yet  earlier  Ibrahim  Pasha,  who  governed 
Egypt  as  viceroy  for  the  Turks  at  the  end  of  the  six- 
teenth century. 

The  partial  destruction  of  the  mosque  must  have 
taken  place  after  1826,  when  a  plan  was  made — pub- 
lished in  Coste's  "  Illustrations  of  Cairene  Architect- 
ture  " — which  represents  all  four  cloisters  as  com- 
plete. The  work  done  under  Ibrahim  and  Isma'il 
Pashas  must  have  been  inadequate,  since  the  plan  of 
1890  shows  only  the  sanctuary,  or  southeast,  liwan  as 
standing,  with  the  rest  in  ruins.  The  work  done  by 
the  Committee  in  1890  and  later  consisted  in  restoring 
the  sanctuary  and  rendering  it  fit  for  public  worship, 

[188] 


THli   DOME   OF   EL   MOAIYAD   FROM    BAB   ZUWEVLEll,    DAMASCUS. 


THE    EARLY   CIRCASSIAN    MAMELUKES 

repairing  the  great  perron  by  which  the  mosque  is 
entered,  and  completing  the  minarets. 

Two  years  before  the  erection  of  this  wonderful 
edifice  a  school  was  built  in  the  ancient  region  Be- 
tween the  Two  Walls,  sometimes  called  the  Fakhri 
School  after  its  founder  Fakhr  al-din.  Vizier  of  the 
Sultan  Muayyad,  but  better  known  as  the  "Girls' 
School."  Its  founder  had  an  unenviable  reputation: 
"  He  combined  the  tyranny  of  the  Armenians  with 
the  cunning  of  the  Christians,  the  devilry  of  the  Copts 
and  the  injustice  of  the  tax-gatherers,  being  by  origin 
an  Armenian,  and  trained  among  the  other  three 
classes  mentioned."  He  at  one  time  had  to  flee  to 
the  Kan  of  Baghdad,  but  found  means  to  regain  the 
favour  of  the  Egyptian  Sultan,  who  had  in  him  a 
convenient  instrument  for  the  extortion  of  money 
from  his  subjects.  In  1852  it  was  restored  by  a  wife 
of  Mohammed  Ali,  but  has  since  undergone  further 
alterations. 

To  a  competent  ruler  Orientals,  and  perhaps  not 
they  only,  are  willing  to  forgive  much :  and  the  judg- 
ment which  they  pass  on  the  Sultan  Muayyad  is  on 
the  whole  exceedingly  favourable.  They  admire  his 
skill  in  music  and  versification,  his  taste  for  the  fine 
arts,  which  undoubtedly  is  exemplified  in  his  Mosque, 
and  his  keen  knowledge  of  men. 

There  lies  in  the  Muayyad  Mosque  one  more  mem- 
ber of  its  founder's  family,  his  son,  Ahmad,  who 
reigned  after  him,  if  a  suckling  can  be  said  to  reign. 
His  story  is  rather  tragical.  Muayyad's  praetorians 
demanded  that  a  son  of  his  should  reign  over  them; 

[191] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

and  the  surviving  son  was  eighteen  months  old.  He 
w^as  proclaimed  sovereign  in  his  nurse's  arms,  and  in- 
jured for  life  by  fright  at  the  beating  of  the  drums. 
The  Emir  who  was  to  govern  for  him  married  his 
mother  as  soon  as  he  decently  could,  and  hurried  him 
ofif  to  Syria,  there  to  quell  one  of  the  rebellions  that 
had  by  this  time  become  normal  on  such  occasions. 
By  the  most  ruthless  executions  he  succeeded  in  quell- 
ing it;  and  when  he  had  quelled  it  he  at  once  divorced 
the  queen  mother,  deposed  her  son,  and  sent  him  to 
Alexandria,  where  dangerous  persons  were  ordinarily 
imprisoned.  There  nine  years  later  he  was  carried 
ofif  by  plague.  But  the  queen-mother  had  not  been 
Muayyad's  wife  without  learning  some  of  the  secrets 
of  empire.  Before  the  usurper  reached  his  capi- 
tal, he  knew  that  there  was  poison  in  his  veins;  and 
after  three  months'  reign  he  went  to  join  his  victims. 
"God  be  pleased  with  him!"  says  the  historian — ■ 
truly  a  marvellous  wish. 

Another  ephemeral  child's  reign  and  a  series  of 
palace  intrigues  ended  in  the  throne  being  occupied 
in  1422  by  a  powerful  ruler,  Barsbai,  who  took  the 
title  Ashraf,  less  ruthless  in  his  ways  than  his  pred- 
ecessors, yet  not  unwilling  to  use  poison  when  con- 
venient. His  reign  lasted  from  1422  till  1438,  and 
was  on  the  whole  a  peaceful  time  for  Egypt,  though 
twice  while  it  lasted  much  of  the  population  was 
swept  away  by  plague.  In  a  census  made  during 
this  reign,  on  the  occasion  of  a  new  tax  being  intro- 
duced, it  was  found  that  the  total  number  of  towns 
and  villages  in  Egypt  had  sunk  to  2170,  whereas  in 

[  192] 


THE    EARLY   CIRCASSIAN    MAMELUKES 

the  fourth  century  A.  H.  it  had  stood  at  10,000.  Bars- 
bai  began  shortly  after  his  usurpation  to  build  his 
monument,  which  is  called  Ashrafiyyah,  after  the 
title  by  which  he  reigned.  It  is  situated  where  the 
street  of  the  same  name  crosses  the  Rue  Neuve.  Its 
site  was  occupied  by  a  number  of  stores,  of  which  the 
rents  were  settled  on  another  mosque;  these  were 
pulled  down,  but  that  there  might  be  no  sacrilege, 
other  rents  were  substituted  for  them.  The  con- 
struction was  confined  to  a  certain  Abd  al-Basit,  who 
occupied  important  posts  in  both  his  reigns  and  the 
last;  he  was  in  Muayyad's  reign  manager  of  the  trust 
funds  which  provided  the  covering  for  the  Ka'bah 
sent  yearly  to  Meccah,  and  keeper  of  the  royal  ward- 
robe; Barsbai  made  him  inspector-general  of  the 
army,  and  relied  in  most  things  on  his  advice.  In 
Muayyad's  reign  he  had  himself  built  a  school  or 
hospice  in  the  Khurunfush  quarter,  opposite  the 
palace  of  the  Sayyid  al-Bekri. 

The  Mosque  of  Barsbai  consists  of  two  large  and 
two  small  liwans — a  characteristic  of  the  later  period 
of  mosque  construction,  due  to  the  fact  that  of  the 
four  orthodox  systems  of  law  only  two  retained  their 
popularity  in  Egypt.  No  columns  are  employed  in 
it;  and  it  belongs  to  the  class  called  Suspended,  as 
there  is  an  ascent  to  it  by  a  flight  of  steps.  Ali 
Pasha  tells  us  that  it  is  largely  used  by  students  of 
al-Azhar  in  preparing  their  lessons,  owing  to  its  size 
and  the  clean  condition  in  which  it  is  kept,  and,  of 
course,  its  proximity  to  the  great  University.  A 
mueddin  who  once  was  drunk  when  he  performed  his 

[  193] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

sacred  duty  dreamed  that  the  Prophet  whipped  him 
with  the  kurbash;  he  woke  and  finding  on  his  person 
the  weals  resulting  from  the  blows,  repented  of  the 
wickedness  of  his  ways.  For  many  years  the  helmet 
of  the  King  of  Cyprus  was  suspended  over  the  door. 
For  one  of  Barsbai's  titles  to  the  gratitude  of  the 
Egyptians  was  that  he  avenged  the  repeated  raids  of 
the  Cyprians  on  Alexandria  by  sending  to  Cyprus  a 
fleet  which  burned  Limasol,  and  another  which  took 
Famagusta,  while  a  later  expedition  succeeded  in 
taking  the  King  of  Cyprus  captive,  who  was  brought 
to  Cairo,  and  presently  released  for  a  ransom  of 
200,000  dinars,  on  condition  of  acknowledging  the 
suzerainty  of  the  Egyptian  Sultan  and  paying  him 
tribute.  An  inscription  going  along  the  sanctuary 
and  the  western  liwan  about  the  middle  of  the  wall, 
contains  the  deed  of  settlement  on  the  Mosque,  which 
has  been  reproduced  with  an  ample  and  exhaustive 
commentary  by  van  Berchem.  The  benefactions  as 
usual  took  the  shape  of  rents  on  buildings  for  the 
most  part,  but  some  of  them  were  in  the  form  of 
lands.  The  deed  also  gives  a  list  of  other  settle- 
ments made  by  the  same  Sultan  both  on  his  heirs  and 
on  other  pious  institutions. 

This  is  the  last  building  mentioned  by  the  great 
Cairene  topographer,  Makrizi,  whose  work  was  be- 
gun in  the  reign  of  Muayyad,  and  finished  in  the 
fourth  year  of  Barsbai.  Few  cities  in  the  world 
have  been  so  exhaustively  described  as  Cairo  is  by  this 
writer,  who  also  composed  a  history  of  the  Mame- 
luke dynasty  up  to  his  time,  and  a  biographical  dic- 

[  194] 


THE   EARLY   CIRCASSIAN   MAMELUKES 

tionary  of  persons  who  had  lived  in  Egypt.  His 
book  on  Cairo  has  been  the  basis  of  all  archaeological 
studies  connected  with  Moslem  Egypt;  and  the 
French  Archaeological  Mission  has  provided  stu- 
dents with  a  translation  of  it. 

In  the  cemetery  to  the  east  of  Cairo  the  Sultan 
Barsbai  built  himself  a  mausoleum  and  a  hospice. 
The  latter  has  disappeared ;  the  former  exists,  but  has 
undergone  some  alterations.  In  the  ruins  of  the 
latter  a  lengthy  inscription  has  been  discovered,  de- 
tailing the  revenues  settled  by  the  Sultan  on  these  in- 
stitutions; it  is  rather  remarkable  that  two  of  this 
Sultan's  foundations  should  contain  such  deeds  which 
are  somewhat  rare.  The  present  deed  contains  pro- 
vision for  the  maintenance  of  certain  other  tombs 
besides  the  Sultan's;  among  the  buildings  furnishing 
rentals  are  some  shops  at  Bab  al-Luk.  These  in- 
scriptions, Ali  Pasha  observes,  by  no  means  had  the 
effect  contemplated  by  their  author,  which  was  to 
render  the  settlements  inalienable,  and  the  founda- 
tions regularly  maintained;  they  were  overtaken  by 
decay,  as  others  were. 

The  last  years  of  Barsbai  were  clouded  by  the 
decay  of  the  Sultan's  mental  faculties,  leading  him  to 
reproduce  the  part  played  of  old  by  Hakim.  He  en- 
acted that  no  woman  should  appear  in  the  streets  at 
all;  the  layers-out  of  corpses  had  to  apply  for  a 
special  badge  from  the  magistrate  before  they  could 
discharge  their  duty.  The  animosity  against  dogs 
that  at  one  time  seized  the  Prophet  of  Islam  also 
found  its  way  into  this  Sultan's  bosom;  they  were 

[I9S] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

banished  from  Cairo  to  Gizeh,  and  a  reward  offered 
to  all  who  arrested  one  of  these  animals.  Wrongs 
done  to  women  and  dogs  perhaps  evoked  little  resent- 
ment in  the  minds  of  the  Egyptians;  but  the  Sultan's 
eccentricity  also  assumed  a  homicidal  turn,  and  his 
death  was  probably  a  relief  to  his  subjects. 

He  left  a  successor,  a  son  fourteen  years  of  age,  who 
was  almost  immediately  displaced  by  a  minister, 
Jakmak,  originally  a  freedman  of  the  Sultan  Barkuk, 
and  sixty-seven  years  of  age  when  he  usurped  the 
throne.  And,  indeed,  the  Palace  revolutions  which 
regularly  followed  on  the  death  of  a  Sultan  in  this 
period,  succeeded  in  fairly  often  putting  into  power 
a  man  of  ripe  experience,  and  free  from  the  vices 
associated  often  with  heirs-apparent.  The  dethroned 
lad  made  an  attempt  to  escape  from  his  honourable 
quarters  in  the  Citadel;  he  dressed  himself  as  a 
kitchen  boy,  bore  a  tray  on  his  head,  begrimed  his 
face,  and  went  out  in  the  company  of  the  cook,  who 
rated  him  in  suitable  style.  But  the  unfortunate  lad 
had  no  plan  is  his  head  of  the  course  to  be  pursued 
when  he  had  escaped,  and  so  waited  about  in  Cairo 
until  he  was  retaken.  The  early  days  of  Jakmak 
were  distinguished  by  a  Servile  War,  reminding  the 
reader  of  his  Roman  history;  five  hundred  blacks  fled 
from  their  masters,  crossed  to  Gizeh,  and  there  set  up 
a  state  and  a  Sultan  of  their  own.  This  attempt 
ended  as  the  Roman  Servile  Wars  ended;  the  slaves 
were  captured  and  sent  off  in  dhows  to  the  markets 
of  the  now  powerful  Ottoman  Empire. 

The  time  of  this  Sultan  was  also  marked  by  perse- 

[196] 


THE    EARLY   CIRCASSIAN    MAMELUKES 

cution  of  Christians  and  Jews,  involving  the  destruc- 
tion of  many  Christian  churches.  As  the  chroniclers 
represent  the  matter,  this  persecution  was  caused  by 
the  Sultan's  desire  to  enforce  total  abstinence;  and,  of 
course,  the  wine  trade  was  in  the  hands  of  these  two 
communities.  If  the  Sultan  heard  of  any  of  his 
praetorians  being  intoxicated,  he  would  banish  him, 
cut  off  his  allowance  and  confiscate  his  property.  A 
strict  search  was  made  into  all  houses,  and  wherever 
any  liquor  was  found  it  was  poured  away. 

Some  monuments  are  left  of  Jakmak's  reign.  One 
is  the  Mosque  of  the  Emir  Tangri  Bardi,  called  also 
the  Mosque  of  Mu'dhi,  in  the  Salibah  Street.  It 
consists,  says  Ali  Pasha,  of  two  liwans  with  a  covered 
court  between  them ;  this  area  is  illuminated  by  a  sky- 
light. A  white  cupola  covers  the  tomb  of  the 
founder,  an  Emir  who  held  high  office,  but  owing  to 
his  surliness  was  known  by  the  title,  "  the  Public 
Nuisance,"  which  the  alternate  name  of  the  founder 
of  the  Mosque  signifies.  His  disagreeable  conduct 
was  finally  the  cause  of  his  death  at  the  hands  of  his 
Mamelukes. 

A  more  important  personage  of  this  reign  was  the 
Kadi  Yahya  (the  Arabic  for  John),  whose  mosque 
is  by  the  bridge  which  takes  the  Mouski  over  what 
was  once  the  Great  Canal.  Its  founder  had  the  high 
office  of  Ma^or  of  the  Palace,  and  underwent  repeat- 
edly exile  and  torture,  finally  dying  of  the  latter, 
when  at  the  close  of  his  long  life  he  was  drawn  from 
his  retirement  by  the  Sultan  Kaietbai,  and  basti- 
nadoed in  the  hope  that  treasure  might  be  extorted 

[197] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

from  him.  Of  his  mosque,  Herz  Bey  observes  that 
it  is  of  the  model  belonging  to  the  latest  period  of 
the  Circassian  Mamelukes.  Its  dimensions  are  small, 
its  shape  cruciform,  the  north  and  south  liwans  are 
reduced,  the  minaret  is  at  the  point  most  in  view, 
the  mausoleum  is  at  the  southeast,  and  is  surrounded 
by  a  small  school. 

The  name  of  Jakmak  himelf  is  commemorated  by 
a  mosque  in  the  Salibah  region,  and  a  school,  of 
which  only  the  fagade  is  preserved,  in  a  street  be- 
tween the  Mouski  and  the  Boulevard  Mohammed 
All. 

Jakmak  tried  to  perpetuate  his  dynasty  by  a  plan 
which  has  often  proved  successful — abdicating  in 
favour  of  his  son,  who,  being  nineteen  years  of  age, 
might  reasonably  have  been  competent  to  reign. 
And,  indeed,  he  commenced  by  administering  tor- 
tures to  various  Emirs  from  whom  he  hoped  to  ex- 
tort money,  in  a  manner  worthy  of  an  older  man. 
The  money  was  required  for  the  usual  largess  de- 
manded by  the  praetorians  on  a  new  sovereign's  ac- 
cession; and  little  of  it  being  forthcoming,  his  min- 
ister of  the  works  thought  of  the  by  no  means  new 
expedient  of  debasing  the  coinage  to  make  a  little  go 
a  longer  way;  a  proceeding  which  so  exasperated 
those  whom  it  was  meant  to  cajole,  that  a  new  Sultan 
was  immediately  elected,  under  whom  the  revolted 
praetorians  besieged  the  son  of  Jakmak  in  the  Citadel, 
and  ere  long  starved  him  into  surrender.  Though 
at  first  imprisoned,  the  dethroned  Sultan  lived  not 
only  to  be  released,  but  to  return  to  the  Citadel,  not, 

[198] 


THE   EARLY   CIRCASSIAN   MAMELUKES 

indeed,  as  monarch,  but  as  the  honoured  guest  of  one 
of  his  successors. 

The  succeeding  Sultan  Inal  tried  to  secure  the  suc- 
cession to  his  son  by  appointing  him,  so  soon  as  he 
was  himself  sovereign,  to  high  office  in  the  State;  but 
he  had  to  retract  this  step,  which  provoked  jealousy. 
Since  it  was  the  custom  of  each  succeeding  Sultan  to 
imprison  numerous  suspects,  but  to  release  many  of 
those  whom  his  predecessors  had  incarcerated,  pos- 
sibly there  were  always  many  to  whom  the  continuity 
of  a  dynasty  was  undesirable,  for  some  persons  are 
likely  to  have  been  interested  in  those  who  pined  in 
captivity.  Yet  it  would  be  unsafe  to  draw  any  infer- 
ences from  ordinary  communities  to  these  regiments 
of  freed  slaves,  torn  violently  from  their  homes  in 
youth  and  spending  their  whole  lives  as  garrison 
amid  an  alien  population.  The  Janissaries  would 
form  the  nearest  parallel  to  them;  but  then  the  Janis- 
saries did  not  furnish  the  sovereign,  nor  ordinarily 
the  ministers. 

This  Sultan — whose  reign  lasted  from  1453  to 
1460,  and  whose  year  of  accession  was  noteworthy 
because  in  it  Cairo  was  decorated  to  celebrate  the 
taking  of  Constantinople  by  the  Ottomans,  who  be- 
fore another  century  had  passed  were  to  be  masters 
of  Egypt  also — like  his  predecessor  perpetuated  his 
name  by  a  school,  mosque  and  monastery  in  the  ceme- 
tery that  already  contained  some  noble  monuments 
of  the  kind.  The  whole  set  of  buildings  is  sur- 
rounded by  a  wall  which  encloses  various  spaces, 
covered  and  uncovered.     The  mausoleum  was  com- 

[  199] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

menced  by  the  founder  when  he  was  still  a  minister 
only,  two  years  before  he  ascended  the  throne,  and  is 
said  to  be  the  only  example  of  a  monument  begun  by 
a  minister  and  ended  by  the  same  man  as  sovereign. 
Some  of  his  children  appear  to  have  been  buried  in 
it  before  his  accession,  and  steps  were  taken  to  alter 
the  inscriptions  in  order  to  make  them  accord  with 
his  regal  titles.  After  he  had  become  Sultan,  he  de- 
cided on  enlarging  his  former  scheme  by  the  inclu- 
sion in  it  of  a  vast  monastery  or  hospice,  the  numerous 
cells  of  which,  though  deserted,  count,  says  van 
Berchem,  among  the  most  curious  relics  of  Egyptian 
Sufism.  The  historians  record  the  festivities  with 
which  the  inauguration  of  the  monastery  was  accom- 
panied; and  the  dedicatory  inscription,  without  nam- 
ing, makes  an  allusion  to  Jamal  al-din  Yusuf,  direc- 
tor of  public  works  at  this  time,  who  oversaw  the 
building  of  this  monument,  and  indeed  is  said  to  have 
supplied  the  necessary  funds.  We  have  already  met 
with  this  personage,  suggesting  tampering  with  the 
coinage  as  a  financial  expedient.  At  a  later  period 
he  suggested,  and  with  some  difficulty  carried 
through,  an  expedient  of  the  contrary  sort,  the 
restoration  of  pure  metal;  a  proceeding  which  cost 
many  persons  the  third  of  their  fortunes,  though  its 
beneficial  results  were  speedily  felt. 

How  many  persons  took  advantage  of  the  numer- 
ous hospices  for  religious  retirement  we  cannot  say; 
besides  those  which  have  met  us  as  connected  or 
identical  with  mosques,  there  was  a  humbler  sort 
called  Takiyyeh  or  Ribat,  and  a  building  of  this  sort, 

[  200  ] 


THE    EARLY   CIRCASSIAN    MAMELUKES 

founded  by  Inal,  still  exists  in  Cairo,  though  only 
three  of  those  mentioned  by  Makrizi  have  left  any 
traces.  Some  of  these  institutions  were  for  female 
ascetics,  the  greater  number  for  males.  The  Moslem 
notion  of  asceticism  or  sainthood  by  no  means  ex- 
cludes marriage;  yet  it  is  likely  that  most  of  those 
who  passed  their  lives  in  these  retreats  were,  when 
they  entered,  near  the  end  of  their  worldly  careers. 

The  account  given  of  the  Sultan  Inal  personally  is 
more  than  usually  favourable.  He  shed  no  blood, 
except  in  judicial  executions,  and  he  lived  with  one 
wife.  On  the  other  hand,  he  was  so  ignorant  that  he 
had  to  sign  public  documents  with  his  mark,  being 
unable  to  read  or  write. 

An  event  occurred  in  this  reign  which  illustrates 
the  relations  between  Sultan  and  Caliph.  The  soli- 
tary duty  of  the  latter  was,  as  we  have  often  seen,  to 
give  legitimacy  to  the  title  of  the  former;  and  in  the 
uncertainty  as  to  the  result,  when  there  was  a  variety 
of  pretenders  to  the  throne,  the  Caliph's  course  was 
not  easy  to  steer.  The  Caliph  who  had  invested 
Inal,  having  espoused  his  cause  before  his  rival  had 
been  defeated,  considered  himself  afterwards  insuffi- 
ciently rewarded  and  took  up  with  another  pretender. 
The  pretender  was  defeated,  and  Inal  then  demanded 
that  the  Caliph  should  divest  himself  of  his  office. 
"  I  divest  myself  of  the  Caliphate,"  he  then  ex- 
claimed, "  and  I  also  divest  Inal  of  the  Sultanate." 
This  proceeding  alarmed  the  audience,  not  seeing  an 
exit  from  the  deadlock.  A  courtier  easily  found 
one.     Having  divested  himself  first,  he  observed,  the 

[203] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

ex-Caliph  no  longer  had  the  power  to  divest  anyone 
else.  He  ought  to  have  begun  w^ith  the  Sultan,  if 
he  had  meant  the  act  to  be  valid. 

The  sufferings  of  the  civil  population  are  said  to 
have  been  very  great  in  this  reign,  notwithstanding 
the  benevolence  of  the  Sultan.  Where  the  sover- 
eign's right  was  based  entirely  on  force,  and  had 
absolutely  no  root  in  the  loyalty  of  the  subjects  or 
their  hereditary  affection,  it  was  his  natural  policy 
to  furnish  himself  with  a  bodyguard  of  which  the 
members  solely  looked  to  him;  the  freedmen  of  an 
earlier  sovereign  could  not  be  trusted,  as  such  loyalty 
as  they  were  capable  of  feeling  would  have  for  its 
object,  at  least  in  part,  the  heirs  of  their  former  mas- 
ter. The  accession  of  each  usurper  therefore  either 
threw  out  of  work,  or  left  in  dangerous  idleness,  a 
great  number  of  mercenaries  who  had  no  affection 
for  the  Egyptian  populace,  while  introducing  a  fresh 
supply  in  the  service  of  the  new  Sultan  whom  he 
could  not  venture  by  violently  repressive  measures  to 
offend.  The  result  was  a  succession  of  riots,  in 
which  shops  were  looted  and  peaceful  passengers 
robbed  without  any  possibility  of  obtaining  redress. 

The  successor  of  Inal,  his  son  Ahmad,  who  came 
to  the  throne  in  1460,  his  father  having  abdicated  in 
his  favour  some  time  before  his  own  death,  was  a 
favourite  of  the  Egyptian  people,  and  endeavoured 
to  repress  the  evils  which  have  been  stated.  He  ap- 
parently trusted  too  much  to  the  loyalty  of  his  father's 
freedmen  and  slaves,  who  as  soon  as  they  saw  that  he 
intended  to  govern  for  the  good  of  his  subjects,  turned 

[204] 


THE   EARLY   CIRCASSIAN    MAMELUKES 

against  him.  They  sent  to  the  Governor  of  Da- 
mascus, offering  him  the  Sultanate;  but,  in  their  im- 
patience to  get  rid  of  Ahmad,  could  not  wait  for  his 
arrival,  and  appointed  the  commander  of  the  forces, 
Khushkadam,  as  stopgap.  Naturally  the  stopgap 
refused  to  make  way  for  the  person  whose  deputy  he 
was  meant  to  be,  and  retained  his  place. 


[20^] 


THE    LAST   OF   THE    CIRCASSIAN    MAMELUKES 

;HUSHKADAM,  the  thirty-eighth  Sultan 
of  the  Mameluke  dynasty,  is  said  to  have 
been  in  origin  a  Greek  slave,  but  the  name 
which  Arab  writers  use  for  "  Greek  "  does 
not  give  much  information,  since  it  is  applied  to  all 
residents  in  Asia  Minor  or  Turkey  in  Asia,  and 
indeed  the  Ottoman  Sultan  is  by  Arabic  authors  of 
this  period  called  the  King  of  the  Greeks  (Rum). 
His  reign  is  noteworthy  for  the  commencement  of  the 
struggle  between  the  Ottoman  and  the  Egyptian  Sul- 
tanates, which  finally  led  to  the  incorporation  of 
Egypt  in  the  Ottoman  Empire.  This  began  with  a 
quarrel  over  the  succession  in  the  principality  of  Ka- 
raman,  where  the  two  Sultans  favoured  rival  candi- 
dates, and  the  Ottoman  Sultan  Mohammed  supported 
his  candidate  with  force  of  arms,  obtaining  as  the 
price  of  his  assistance  several  towns  in  which  the  su- 
zerainty of  the  Egyptian  Sultan  had  hitherto  been 
acknowledged.  Open  war  did  not,  however,  break 
out  between  the  two  states  in  Khushkadam's  time. 
His  reign  of  six  years  is  not  otherwise  of  consequence 
for  the  development  of  either  Egypt  or  Cairo,  though 
he,  as  usual,  built  himself  a  mausoleum. 

[206] 


LAST    OF    CIRCASSIAN    MAMELUKES 

His  death  was  followed  by  the  accession  succes- 
sively of  two  ephemeral  usurpers,  after  whom  there 
came  another  great  sovereign  in  the  person  of  Kaiet- 
bai,  who  occupied  the  throne  for  the  lengthy  period 
of  twenty-seven  years  (1468-1495).  Much  of  his 
time  was  spent  in  struggles  with  Uzun  Hasan,  Prince 
of  Diyarbekr,  and  Shah  Siwar,  chief  of  the  Zulkadir 
Turcomans.  He  gave  grave  offence  to  the  Ottoman 
Sultan,  Bayazid  II.,  by  entertaining  his  brother  Jem, 
who  afterwards  took  refuge  in  Christian  Europe,  and 
was  poisoned  by  Pope  Alexander  VI.  In  the  war 
which  ensued  the  troops  of  Kaietbai  were  successful, 
and  after  they  had  repeatedly  defeated  the  Ottomans, 
peace  was  made  in  1491,  when  the  keys  of  the  towns 
which  the  Ottomans  had  seized  were  handed  back 
to  the  Egyptian  Sultan. 

Kaietbai  was  a  builder  on  about  as  great  a  scale  as 
the  Sultan  Nasir,  and  extended  his  operations  far  be- 
yond Cairo;  he  erected  edifices  on  a  costly  scale  at 
Meccah  and  Medinah,  Jerusalem  and  elsewhere. 
The  Citadel  and  the  parts  of  Cairo  in  its  neighbour- 
hood were,  if  we  may  believe  the  chroniclers,  practi- 
cally rebuilt  in  a  more  magnificent  style  than  before 
by  this  Sultan,  and  he  founded  a  whole  series  of 
mosques  in  different  parts  of  his  capital,  on  the  island 
Raudah,  in  the  Kabsh,  and  in  the  great  cemetery 
which  already  contained  so  many  of  these  monu- 
ments. Apparently  the  revenues  of  the  country  must 
have  been  wasted  on  these  costly  schemes,  and  the 
State  treasury  was  regularly  during  his  reign  in  an 
exhausted  condition.     The  historians,  however,  turn 

[207] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

their  attention  to  his  piety  rather  than  to  his  extrava- 
gance, and  surround  his  person  with  the  romance 
attaching  to  a  saint.  Before  his  accession  to  the  Sul- 
tanate was  ever  thought  of,  pious  persons  had  the  fact 
revealed  to  them.  When  a  plague  was  raging  in 
Cairo,  someone  dreamed  that  the  Prophet's  servant 
averted  the  destroying  angel  from  Kaietbai's  person. 
He  told  Kaietbai  of  this  vision,  and  the  future  Sul- 
tan wisely  bade  him  conceal  it.  Another  person  saw 
in  a  dream  a  pomegranate  tree  with  a  single  fruit 
upon  it,  which  Kaietbai  hastened  to  pluck.  He  told 
Kaietbai  that  this  was  a  sure  omen  of  his  sovereignty, 
but  was  rebuked  by  the  future  Sultan  when  he  ven- 
tured to  narrate  the  vision.  In  a  vision  which  the 
Sultan  himself  saw  when  he  went  on  pilgrimage  he 
was  informed  by  the  Prophet  that  he  was  one  of  the 
saved. 

Many  of  the  great  monuments  of  Cairo  underwent 
some  form  of  restoration  by  his  care,  such  as  the 
Mosque  al-Azhar,  that  of  Sayyidah  Nefisah,  that  of 
Amr  Ibn  al-As,  the  tomb  of  al-Shafi'i,  the  Meidan  of 
the  Sultan  Nasir  and  many  more. 

The  chief  architectural  monument  of  his  reign, 
which  also  marks  the  highest  point  to  which  art  was 
carried  in  the  days  of  the  Circassian  Mamelukes,  is 
his  mosque  in  the  cemetery  now  called  "The  Tombs 
of  the  Caliphs."  "  Everything  that  is  to  be  found 
separately  in  the  other  temples  is  united  in  this  with 
incomparable  talent,"  says  Gayet.  "  The  bold  gate- 
way is  surmounted  by  trefoil  arch;  to  the  left  the 
facade   is   pierced  by  the   windows   of   a   fountain 

[208] 


LAST    OF    CIRCASSIAN    MAMELUKES 

(sebtl)  and  a  school.  Those  of  the  fountain  are 
closed  with  grilles  of  network,  to  the  right  is  an 
octagon  minaret  with  a  square  base  ornamented  with 
rosettes.  The  back  wall  of  the  sanctuary  is  pierced 
by  two  double  windows,  separated  by  a  rose  window, 
also  in  glass.  This  arrangement  is  reproduced  in  the 
sepulchral  hall.  The  octagonal  dome  of  the  latter 
is  of  incomparable  grace,"  etc.  The  building  em- 
braces a  school,  a  fountain,  a  school  for  children,  a 
mausoleum  and  as  usual  a  hospice  for  Sufis,  though 
this  last  has  disappeared.  German  travellers  visit- 
ing Cairo  in  1483  were  enthusiastic  over  the  beauty 
of  this  mosque,  which  had  then  been  completed  nine 
years.  These  travellers — whose  accounts  are  re- 
printed by  M.  von  Berchem — were  greatly  struck  by 
the  noise  made  by  the  Mohammedan  "  priests,"  i.  e., 
Mueddins  and  Dervishes,  lodged  in  the  hospice  pro- 
vided for  their  use.  The  uncomplimentary  epithet 
"  dogs  "  was  applied  by  these  devotees  to  their  Euro- 
pean visitors. 

The  plan  of  the  school  (madrasah)  was  that  of 
the  latest  period,  in  which,  as  has  been  seen,  the  two 
lateral  liwans  are  increased,  and  the  others  dimin- 
ished in  size.  Together  with  the  alterations  in  the 
structure  of  the  schools  or  mosques  comes  the  gradual 
displacement  of  brick  by  stone.  The  employment 
of  the  latter  material  in  Egypt  was  a  natural  relic  of 
the  traditions  of  the  Abbasid  Caliphate,  since  the 
Babylon  of  that  monarchy,  no  less  than  that  of  its 
predecessor,  was  an  a  figulis  munita  urhs.  The 
architects  towards  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 

[209] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

tury  succeeded  in  building  stone  cupolas  over  tombs, 
but  for  arches  which  had  to  support  great  weights 
they  found  stone  difficult  to  work,  and  soon  took  to 
covering  the  liwans  with  wooden  ceilings  in  prefer- 
ence to  arched  roofs. 

The  deed  of  foundation  is  given  at  length  by  Ali 
Pasha,  and  apparently  exceeds  in  munificence  all  pre- 
ceding foundations,  lavish  as  many  of  these  had  been. 
The  leader  of  prayer  was  to  have  five  hundred  dir- 
hems  a  month,  and  three  loaves  a  day;  there  were  to 
be  nine  well-paid  mueddins,  "  scholarships  "  for  two 
orphan  schools,  one  of  twenty  and  the  other  of  thirty 
children;  five  hundred  dirhems  a  day  for  each  of 
forty  Sufis  with  their  head,  and  special  benefactions 
for  special  occasions.  The  mere  enumeration  of 
buildings  settled  on  this  fourfold  institution  is 
lengthy. 

A  building  less  religious  in  character  also  belong- 
ing to  the  epoch  of  Kaietbai  is  the  Bait  al-Kadi,  oc- 
cupying part  of  the  site  of  the  old  Eastern  Palace  of 
the  Fatimides.  This  house  was  a  portion  of  the 
Palace  of  the  Emir  Mamai,  which  he  appears  to  have 
repaired  rather  than  to  have  built.  The  late  Mr. 
H.  C.  Kay,  who  did  not  a  little  for  the  exploration 
of  Cairo,  discovered  some  forty  yards  west  of  the  law 
court  which  is  usually  identified  with  the  Palace, 
a  ruined  saloon,  with  liwans  separated  from  the  cen- 
tral portion  by  lofty  arches  of  solid  masonry.  The 
base  of  the  arches  contained  an  inscription  which 
identified  this  saloon  as  part  of  Mamai's  Palace.  In 
Mr.  Kay's  time  it  was  occupied  as  a  corn  mill,  with 

[210] 


LAST    OF    CIRCASSIAN    MAMELUKES 

stabling  for  the  cattle  that  worked  the  mill.  This 
Mamai  played  an  important  part  in  the  history  of  his 
time,  and  was  repeatedly  employed  as  ambassador 
from  the  Egyptian  Sultan  to  the  Ottoman  Porte. 
The  loggia  is  remarkable  for  its  size. 

Another  Palace,  of  which  some  remains  are  to  be 
found,  is  that  of  the  Emir  Yashbak,  behind  the 
mosque  of  the  Sultan  Hasan,  constituting  one  of 
the  latest  specimens  of  the  civil  architecture  of 
the  Mamelukes.  It  comprehends  a  rez-de-chaussee 
vaulted  with  a  saloon  (ka'ah)  of  gigantic  dimensions. 

Three  buildings  bearing  the  title  Wakalah  (often 
pronounced  Ukalah)  were  erected  by  Kaietbai  in- 
side Cairo.  This  form  of  edifice  is  similar  to  what 
is  called  a  khan  in  Syria;  it  means  a  magazine  in 
which  strange  merchants  can  deposit  their  wares. 
One  of  those  founded  by  this  Sultan  was  in  the  Rue 
Surujiyyah,  and  was  condemned  by  the  Committee, 
who,  however,  took  care  that  any  objects  left  there  of 
artistic  or  archaeological  interest  should  be  carefully 
removed  and  preserved.  Of  the  two  others,  opposite 
al-Azhar  and  near  the  Bab  al-Nasr  respectively,  the 
fagades  are  preserved.  The  Wakalah  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  Nasr  Gate  had  three  fagades — that 
which  faces  the  street  shows  an  alternate  series  of 
mashrabiyyahs  and  grilles,  the  first  floor  overlapping 
the  ground  floor. 

Various  other  buildings  of  interest  date  from  the 
time  of  the  Sultan  Kaietbai.  One  of  these  is  the 
School  or  Mosque  of  Muzhir,  in  the  lane  leading 
from   the   street   Between    the   Two   Walls   to   the 

[211] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

Khurunfush.  Of  its  two  gates  one  is  ornamented 
with  bronze,  the  other  with  inlaid  ivory  work  in 
geometrical  patterns.  The  two  larger  liwans  have 
pillars  of  marble,  and  the  whole  is  paved  with 
marbles  of  various  colours  also  arranged  in  geometri- 
cal designs.  The  woodwork  of  this  mosque  is  also 
highly  admired.  The  whole  is  said  to  be  still  much 
as  its  founder  left  it,  except  for  certain  slight  im- 
provements and  repairs  executed  at  various  times. 
Muzhir,  or  rather  Ibn  Muzhir,  was  private  secretary 
to  the  Sultan  Kaietbai,  and  as  such  had  to  represent 
him  on  certain  occasions.  On  one  that  is  recorded 
by  the  chronicler  he  was  sent  by  the  Sultan  to  a  coun- 
cil that  had  been  summoned  of  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities,  to  decide  whether  for  the  defence  of  the 
State  it  was  desirable  to  seize  the  revenues  of  the  reli- 
gious foundations,  leaving  them  just  enough  to  main- 
tain them  in  working  order.  The  Sheiks  naturally 
made  the  same  reply  as  the  privileged  orders  when 
their  taxation  was  suggested  at  the  commencement 
of  the  French  Revolution;  such  an  act  was  against 
the  divine  law,  and  the  Sheiks,  if  they  countenanced 
it,  would  have  to  answer  for  the  impiety  on  the  Day 
of  Judgment;  it  was  of  no  use  summoning  them  to  a 
council,  if  such  a  proposition  were  put  before  them 
to  discuss. 

The  Sultan  Kaietbai  made  himself  famous  for  the 
economy  of  his  regime,  and  the  expedients  which  he 
invented  for  saving  the  revenues  of  the  State — in 
order  to  squander  them  on  his  buildings — one  of  these 
might  have  been  borrowed   from   the   Odyssey  of 

[212] 


LAST    OF    CIRCASSIAN    MAMELUKES 

Homer  if  we  could  imagine  that  this  Sultan  had 
access  to  that  poem.  Persons  enjoying  military  pay 
were  summoned  to  the  Sultan's  presence  and  invited 
to  draw  a  tough  bow;  if  they  failed,  they  were  dis- 
qualified and  their  pay  withdrawn.  The  task  of  dis- 
tributing it  was  undertaken  by  the  Sultan  personally, 
who  sat  on  definite  days  for  the  purpose.  In  spite 
of  this  economy  the  fortunes  which  the  Emirs  man- 
aged to  accumulate  show  that  further  supervision 
would  have  been  desirable. 

The  Mosque  often  known  as  that  of  the  Sheik 
Abu  Haribah  (after  a  saint  buried  in  it)  in  the 
Ahmar  Street,  belongs  to  the  time  of  Kaietbai,  and 
was  built  by  an  Emir  of  his  named  Kachmas  (Turk- 
ish for  "flees  not").  This  person,  who  held  a 
variety  of  important  posts,  signalised  himself  by 
building  outside  Alexandria  a  refuge  for  travellers 
who  arrived  after  the  closing  of  the  gates  of  the  city, 
when  they  were  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  marauders. 
He  also  founded  a  number  of  religious  institutions 
in  the  various  cities  in  which  he  held  office,  chiefly 
hospices  for  Sufis.  The  Sheik  Abu  Haribah  is  a 
modern  celebrity  who  died  in  the  year  1851.  Born 
in  Upper  Egypt,  he  studied  various  forms  of  Su- 
fism,  until  he  was  ready  to  start  a  system  of  his  own; 
he  came  to  Cairo  and  took  a  situation  as  clerk  in  a 
Christian  bakehouse,  where  he  proselytised  and  made 
as  many  as  sixty  converts  to  Islam.  His  teaching 
was  greatly  sought  after,  and  his  fame  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  rulers  of  Egypt;  Mohammed  Ali  sent 
him  a  present  of  £500,  and  Abbas  Pasha  offered 

[213] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

him  a  gift  of  land,  but  both  presents  were  declined. 
His  disciples  have  erected  an  ivory  monument  to 
him  in  the  Mosque. 

The  part  of  Cairo  called  Ezbekiyyeh,  familiar  to 
all  European  visitors,  dates  from  the  reign  of  Kaiet- 
bai.  According  to  the  chronicler  it  was  during  the 
Fatimide  period  partly  sand-heaps  and  partly  mo- 
rass; at  some  time  it  was  drained  by  a  canal  called 
the  Male  Canal,  which  was  blocked  when  the  Sultan 
Nasir  had  his  Nasiri  Canal  dug.  The  buildings 
which  had  sprung  up  in  consequence  of  the  land  be- 
ing drained  now  fell  into  ruin,  and  the  region  became 
a  haunt  of  evil  doers.  By  private  enterprise  a  bath 
was  presently  built  in  the  region,  to  which  water  was 
conveyed  by  an  aqueduct  from  the  Nasiri  Canal;  the 
same  water  was  also  used  for  agricultural  purposes 
and  cereals  grown  in  fields.  In  the  year  1470,  near 
the  beginning  of  Kaietbai's  reign,  the  Emir  Ezbek 
decided  to  build  here  some  stalls  for  his  camels,  and 
afterwards  residential  quarters.  He  proceeded  to 
have  the  rubbish-heaps  that  were  there  removed,  to 
have  the  land  levelled,  and  to  excavate  a  pond,  into 
which  water  was  introduced  from  the  Nasiri  Canal. 
The  pond  was  surrounded  by  a  stone  embankment. 
Owing  to  the  great  liking  of  the  Egyptian  residents 
for  views  over  water,  the  region  speedily  became 
fashionable,  and  handsome  residences  were  erected 
all  round  the  new  pool.  By  the  end  of  Kaietbai's 
reign  the  Ezbekiyyeh,  as  the  quarter  was  called  after 
its  founder,  had  become  "  a  city  for  itself,"  and  the 
same  Emir  proceeded  to  build  a  mosque  in  splendid 

[214] 


LAST    OF    CIRCASSIAN    MAMELUKES 

style  for  the  religious  needs  of  his  ^'  new  city,"  with 
baths,  stores,  mills  and  bakehouses  for  its  temporary 
wants.  The  day  in  the  year  on  which  water  was  let 
into  the  pool  became  one  of  public  rejoicing,  and  the 
occasion  would  be  celebrated  by  the  lighting  of  a 
bonfire  of  unheard-of  magnitude. 

At  the  time  of  the  French  occupation  the  bed  of 
the  pond  was  according  to  M.  Rhone's  estimate  about 
three  times  the  area  of  the  Place  de  la  Concorde,  or 
equal  to  the  interior  of  the  Champ  de  Mars.  When 
the  inundation  of  the  Nile  filled  it  with  water,  the 
surrounding  buildings  had  the  aspect  of  Venetian 
palaces,  whereas  in  winter  the  area  was  covered  with 
green  vegetation.  The  pond  was  drained  by  Mo- 
hammed Ali,  and  his  successor  Ibrahim  Pasha  had 
the  recovered  land  covered  with  fine  trees.  These 
were  cut  down  by  Isma'il  Pasha,  who  "  abandoned 
the  place  to  the  horrors  of  speculation,"  and  insti- 
tuted the  public  park  which  now  occupies  the  middle 
of  the  quarter.  The  statue  of  Ibrahim  Pasha  which 
originally  stood  on  a  mound  was  transferred  to  its 
present  site,  and  the  Mosque  of  Ezbek  demolished 
to  make  room  for  its  pedestal.  The  modern  build- 
ings in  this  region  date  from  the  reign  of  Isma'il  or 
his  successors. 

The  Emir  Ezbek  is  celebrated  for  much  besides 
the  Ezbekiyyeh.  Originally  a  slave  of  the  Sultan 
Barsbai,  he  was  purchased  and  manumitted  by  Jak- 
mak,  who  gave  him  successively  two  of  his  daughters. 
He  was  promoted  to  high  office  at  the  Egyptian 
court,  and  for  a  time  held  a  governorship  in  Syria, 

[2>5] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

whence  he  returned  to  Egypt  to  be  commander  of  the 
forces,  under  Kaietbai ;  it  was  this  office  which  under 
the  Circassion  regime  often  trained  a  man  to  be  Sul- 
tan. He  led  expeditions  against  the  Bedouins  and 
Turcomans,  helped  to  defeat  the  Ottomans,  and  in 
the  absence  of  Kaietbai  from  Cairo  was  left  in  charge 
of  afifairs.  According  to  a  custom  illustrated  in  Eng- 
lish history  by  the  practice  of  Queen  Elizabeth  he 
was  in  the  habit  of  defraying  out  of  his  own  purse 
the  cost  of  the  expeditions  which  he  commanded. 
Like  many  eminent  men's  careers  his  was  not  un- 
clouded; he  was  banished  four  times  in  the  course  of 
it  and  imprisoned  in  Alexandria  twice.  When  he 
died,  owing  to  a  dispute  between  his  heirs,  his  estate 
was  seized  by  the  Sultan,  and  was  discovered  to  in- 
clude 700,000  dinars  in  coin,  besides  goods  corre- 
sponding in  value;  indeed,  the  chroniclers  add,  had  it 
not  been  for  what  he  spent  in  the  public  service,  and 
what  he  had  laid  out  on  the  Ezbekiyyeh,  his  wealth 
would  have  defied  calculation.  He  is  credited  with 
great  personal  ability,  but  otherwise  with  few  good 
qualities;  he  had  a  sharp  tongue  and  an  arrogant 
manner;  he  was  implacable  if  once  offended,  and  if 
ever  he  imprisoned  anyone,  would  never  permit  a 
release. 

A  Mosque  erected  by  another  Emir  Ezbek  still 
exists  in  the  Birket  al-Fil  (Elephant's  Pool)  region. 
It  is  of  the  late  style,  in  which  the  two  main  liwans 
are  enlarged  to  the  detriment  of  the  two  lateral 
cloisters.  It  contains  the  tomb  of  a  stepson  of  the 
founder,  Sidi  Faraj,  son  of  a  governor  of  Damascus 

[216] 


I'ALACH   OF    KAIT    BKN  .    l.  \IKO 


LAST    OF    CIRCASSIAN    MAMELUKES 

whose  widow  became  the  wife  of  Ezbek.  This  lady, 
called  the  Princess  Bunukh,  is  buried  close  by. 

The  architectural  and  engineering  works  ordered 
by  the  Sultan  Kaietbai  were  more  varied  in  character 
than  most  of  those  of  his  predecessors.  Ezbek — of 
the  Ezbekiyyeh — was  employed  by  him  to  restore 
certain  bridges  over  the  canals  which  came  between 
the  Pyramids  and  Gizeh,  and  which  when  Saladin 
ordered  his  great  plan  of  fortification,  had  formed 
part  of  a  road  whereby  material  was  to  be  taken  from 
the  pyramids  and  brought  to  the  Nile.  These 
bridges  were  seen  and  their  inscriptions  copied  in  the 
eighteenth  century;  but  in  the  nineteenth  century  the 
bridges  disappeared,  and  with  them  their  inscriptions. 
One  of  these  inscriptions  spoke  of  ten  arches,  of  which 
the  original  construction  went  back  to  a  period  an- 
terior to  Islam.  This  was  probably  an  exaggeration, 
though  perhaps  intended  in  good  faith. 

Ezbek's  last  triumph  was  in  the  year  1491,  when 
he  brought  his  troops  home  from  Asia  Minor,  after 
having  inflicted  a  severe  defeat  on  the  Ottoman 
forces,  stormed  some  fortresses,  and  taken  many  cap- 
tives. He  returned,  indeed,  without  having  received 
leave  from  his  chief,  owing  to  the  insubordination 
of  his  troops,  who  demanded  more  and  more  pay; 
but  Cairo  was  adorned  to  welcome  the  victors,  and 
Kaietbai  made  peace  with  the  Ottomans  on  the 
earliest  opportunity.  The  want  of  money  in  Egypt 
had  by  this  time  reached  its  height,  and  not  all  the 
expedients  which  the  Sultan  and  his  ministers  could 
devise  produced  a  sufficient  supply.     The  revenues 

[219] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

of  all  religious  foundations  were  sequestrated  for 
seven  months,  a  measure  extended  to  Syria  as  well 
as  Egypt,  and  ruthlessly  executed.  Another  plan 
adopted  by  the  Sultan  was  to  endow  research  in  the 
shape  of  alchemy,  various  persons  professing  to  turn 
base  metal  into  gold,  if  money  were  provided  to  pay 
for  experiments.  When  these  experiments  proved 
unsuccessful,  the  Sultan  avenged  himself  by  depriv- 
ing the  unfortunate  alchemists  of  their  eyes  and 
tongues.  The  great  Nur  al-din  in  Saladin's  time 
had  allowed  himself  to  be  cajoled  by  a  man  of  this 
craft,  who  offered  to  utilise  his  art  for  the  Sultan's 
benefit  on  condition  that  the  gold  so  produced  should 
only  be  employed  for  the  sacred  war.  The  charlatan 
melted  down  a  thousand  dinars,  to  give  the  Sultan 
the  satisfaction  of  seeing,  as  he  thought,  a  gold  ingot 
produced  out  of  base  metal;  and  the  Sultan,  when  he 
had  seen  it,  liberally  equipped  the  adventurer  to  go 
in  search  of  a  large  supply  of  the  chemicals  that  he 
required  for  his  experiments,  of  which,  naturally, 
sufficient  was  not  to  be  had  in  Damascus.  One  of  the 
Sultan's  subjects  then  made  out  a  class-list  of  fools, 
placing  the  Sultan  at  the  head;  he  offered  if  the 
alchemist  ever  returned  to  erase  the  Sultan's  name 
from  this  post  of  honour,  and  give  it  to  the  former, 
but  never  had  occasion  to  alter  his  list. 

Kaietbai  had  one  son,  Mohammed,  whose  mother 
after  his  death  married  one  of  his  ephemeral  succes- 
sors, Jan-balat,  and  experienced  various  vicissitudes 
of  fortune  in  the  troublous  times  which  Egypt  passed 
through  in  the  early  tenth  century  of  the  Mohamme- 

[  220  ] 


LAST    OF    CIRCASSIAN    MAMELUKES 

dan  era,  but  has  left  a  monument  of  herself  in  a 
mosque  at  Fayyum.  This  princess  was  the  wife  of 
two  Sultans,  the  mother  of  a  third,  and  the  sister  of  a 
fourth ;  for  the  first  of  the  two  Kansuhs  who  mounted 
the  throne  during  these  troubles  owed  his  promo- 
tion to  the  discovery  that  he  was  the  brother  of  Kaiet- 
bai's  Queen.  The  Sultan  Kaietbai  had  built  a  palace 
for  his  son,  in  order  to  gratify  his  taste  for  building; 
and  in  consequence  of  a  palace  intrigue  which  he 
was  unable  to  quell  he  was  induced  to  allow  the 
prince  to  be  proclaimed  Sultan  the  day  before  his 
own  death  (August  7,  1496) ,  though,  being  only  four- 
teen years  of  age,  he  would  be  unable  to  govern  him- 
self, but  would  be  a  puppet  in  the  hands  of  the  Com- 
mander of  the  forces.  The  expedient  of  securing 
the  succession  by  appointing  the  new  Sultan  during 
his  father's  lifetime  had  been  already  tried  under 
more  favourable  circumstances,  and  had  failed.  It 
succeeded  no  better  now;  for  four  years  the  supreme 
power  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  series  of  adven- 
turers; and  not  till  1501  was  there  seated  on  it  a  mon- 
arch possessing  the  capacity  to  maintain  himself. 

Kansuh  al-Ghuri  is  the  last  great  monarch  of  the 
Circassian  dynasty,  and  indeed  of  Independent 
Egypt.  His  name  is  perpetuated  by  the  Mosque  al- 
Ghuri,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Citadel,  and  by 
another  in  the  Street  called  after  it  Ghuriyyah,  not 
far  from  the  Ashrafiyyah  Mosque.  There  are  two 
large  and  two  small  liwans  (as  usual  at  this  period), 
and  no  columns.  The  pulpit,  which  is  much  ad- 
mired, is  said  to  have  a  talisman  to  keep  off  flies 

[221] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

which  is,  according  to  Ali  Pasha,  found  to  be  quite 
effective.  The  minaret  commands  a  fine  view;  and 
the  mosque,  which  was  intended  to  be  a  school,  had 
the  usual  adjuncts  of  a  hospice,  a  fountain,  and  a 
school  for  children.  The  cupola  was  supposed  to 
have  been  built  to  hold  the  Koran  of  the  Caliph 
Othman  of  which  the  binding,  as  might  well  be  im- 
agined, was  by  this  time  sorely  in  need  of  repair;  the 
Sultan  had  it  freshly  bound,  placed  in  a  wooden  case, 
and  stored  under  the  Cupola  specially  built  to  re- 
ceive it.  A  deed  of  benefactions  rivalling  that  of 
Kaietbai's  foundation  is  given  by  our  guide  in  con- 
nection with  this  mosque;  the  writer  of  the  deed  was 
to  have  a  pension  of  thirty  dirhems  a  month  and  three 
loaves  a  day  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

The  story  of  Kansuh  al-Ghuri's  accession  shows 
that  the  state  of  Egypt  was  generally  unhealthy,  and 
its  easy  conquest  by  a  foreign  power  to  be  expected; 
for  he  was  selected  by  the  mutinous  prstorians  on 
the  remarkable  ground  that  being  a  man  of  little 
wealth  and  little  influence,  he  could  easily  be  de- 
posed; and  indeed  he  stipulated  that  if  they  chose  to 
depose  him,  his  life  was  to  be  guaranteed.  Once  in 
power  he  endeavoured  by  a  variety  of  artifices  to 
isolate  the  Emirs  who  were  in  control  of  affairs,  and 
where  more  gentle  means  were  unavailing,  to  employ 
poison.  His  reign  was  remarkable  for  a  naval  con- 
flict between  the  Egyptians  and  Portuguese,  whose 
fleet  interfered  with  the  trade  between  India  and 
Egypt;  Kansuh  caused  a  fleet  to  be  built  which 
fought  naval  battles  with  the  Portuguese  with  vary- 

[  222  ] 


LAST   OF    CIRCASSIAN   MAMLUKES 

ing  result.  In  15 15  there  began  the  war  with  the 
Ottoman  Sultan  Selim,  which  led  to  the  close  of  the 
Mameluke  period,  and  the  incorporation  of  Egypt 
with  its  dependencies  in  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Kan- 
suh  was  charged  by  Selim  with  giving  the  right  of 
way  through  Syria  to  the  envoys  of  the  Safawid 
Isma'il,  whose  destination  was  Venice,  where  they 
hoped  to  form  a  confederacy  of  west  and  east  against 
the  Turks.  The  actual  declaration  of  war  was  not 
made  by  Selim  till  May,  15 15,  when  all  his  prepara- 
tions had  been  made;  at  the  Battle  of  Marj  Dabik, 
August  24,  15 16,  Kansuh  was  defeated  by  the  Otto- 
man forces,  and  fell  fighting.  His  body  was  left  on 
the  battlefield  and  never  was  interred  in  his  mauso- 
leum. His  successor,  Tumanbai,  made  a  brave  but 
useless  resistance  to  the  Ottomans,  who  now  invaded 
Egypt. 

The  Mameluke  rule  had  at  no  time  been  identified 
with  any  national  cause  in  Egypt,  though  the  vic- 
tories of  the  first  dynasty  over  the  Crusaders  had  won 
for  it  the  respect  of  the  Moslems.  The  chroniclers 
do  not  wish  us  to  suppose  that  the  defeat  of  the  Mame- 
luke by  the  Ottoman  Sultan  was  regarded  as  a  na- 
tional misfortune;  indeed  they  suggest  that  the  extor- 
tion and  injustice  which  the  last  of  the  Mamelukes 
had  organised,  or  at  least  countenanced,  rendered 
the  prospect  of  a  change  almost  desirable.  As  has 
been  seen,  the  Egyptians  cared  not  at  all  to  which  of 
the  two  powers  they  paid  their  taxes,  their  only 
anxiety  was  not  to  pay  them  twice. 

In  his  history  of  the  Egyptian  Revolution,  Mr.  A. 
[225] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

A.  Paton  produced  a  description  of  the  court  of 
Kansuh  al-Ghuri  given  by  a  Venetian  ambassador, 
who  visited  it  in  the  year  1503.  The  Sultan  had  then 
been  seated  on  the  throne  three  years.  "  On  reaching 
the  foot  of  the  castle  they  dismounted  and  ascended 
a  staircase  of  about  fifty  steps,  at  the  top  of  which 
they  found  a  large  iron  door  open,  and  within  seated, 
the  warder,  dressed  in  white,  with  a  muslin  turban. 
On  either  side  of  him  were  perhaps  300  Mamelukes 
dressed  in  white,  with  long  caps  on  their  heads,  half 
black  and  half  green;  they  were  ranged  all  in  line, 
so  silent  and  respectful  that  they  looked  like  observ- 
ant Franciscan  friars.  After  entering  this  door  they 
passed  eleven  other  iron  doors,  between  each  of 
which  there  was  a  guard  of  eunuchs,  black  and  white, 
three  or  four  for  each  door,  and  all  of  them  seated 
with  an  air  of  marvellous  pride  and  dignity.  At 
each  door  upwards  of  one  hundred  Mamelukes  stood 
respectful  and  silent.  After  passing  the  twelfth 
door,  the  ambassador  and  his  suite  were  tired  out, 
and  had  to  sit  down  to  rest  themselves,  the  distance 
they  had  traversed  being  nearly  a  mile.  They  then 
entered  the  area  or  courtyard  of  the  castle,  which 
they  judged  to  be  six  times  the  area  of  St.  Mark's 
Square.  On  either  side  of  this  space  6000  Mame- 
lukes dressed  in  white  and  with  green  and  black  caps 
were  drawn  up;  at  the  end  of  the  court  was  a  silken 
tent  with  a  raised  platform,  covered  with  a  carpet,  on 
which  was  seated  Sultan  Kansuh  al-Ghuri,  his  under- 
garment being  white  surmounted  with  dark  green 
cloth,  and  the  muslin  turban  on  his  head  with  three 

[  226  ] 


LAST    OF    CIRCASSIAN    MAMELUKES 

points  or  horns,  and  by  his  side  was  the  naked 
scimitar."  The  Ambassador  observed  of  Cairo  it- 
self, "  In  the  first  place  it  is  so  peopled  that  one  can- 
not judge  of  the  amount  of  its  population,  and  one 
can  scarcely  make  way  through  the  streets;  there  are 
very  large  mosques  in  great  number,  very  excellent 
houses  and  palaces,  handsomer  within  than  without, 
and  the  streets  are  straight  and  wide  (straight  they 
certainly  were,  but  their  width  must  have  been 
judged  by  a  Venetian  standard)  ;  living  is  dear;  there 
is  much  populace  and  a  few  men  of  account.  The 
Mamelukes  are  in  fact  the  masters." 


1 227 1 


THE   TURKISH    PERIOD 

^^^^^HE  Ottoman  army,  though  they  had  cir- 
m  C|  cumvented  Tumanbai,  did  not  take  the 
^^  3  metropolis  without  a  severe  struggle,  in 
^^^^  which  large  parts  of  Cairo  underwent  seri- 
ous damage.  For  four  days  the  inhabitants  main- 
tained the  unequal  conflict,  and  contested  with  the 
Ottomans  every  inch  of  ground;  10,000  of  them  are 
said  in  that  period  to  have  lost  their  lives.  A  rigid 
search  was  then  made  by  the  conquerors  for  such  of 
the  Mamelukes  as  were  concealed  in  the  houses,  and 
as  many  as  were  taken  were  killed.  For  eight  months 
the  Sultan  Selim  remained  in  Egypt,  arranging  the 
future  government  of  the  country;  when  he  left  for 
Constantinople  he  took  away  with  him  numerous 
artisans  and  various  persons  of  importance,  and,  most 
important  of  all,  the  Caliph  who  had  accompanied 
the  unfortunate  Sultan  Ghuri  on  his  last  expedition. 
By  a  satisfactory  arrangement  the  Caliph  was  in- 
duced to  resign  his  rights  as  spiritual  chief  of  the 
Moslems  to  the  Ottoman  Sultan;  and  those  who  hold 
that  such  transference  was  within  the  rights  of  the 
last  of  the  Abbasids  recognise  the  Sultan  of  Turkey 
as  the  Successor  of  the  Prophet. 

[228] 


THE   TURKISH    PERIOD 

The  taking  of  Egypt  by  the  Ottomans,  however, 
deprived  Cairo  of  its  status  as  an  imperial  city,  and 
as  has  been  seen,  one  of  the  first  acts  of  the  new  ruler 
was  to  transfer  to  his  own  capital  some  of  the  beauti- 
ful marbles  which  had  adorned  the  Citadel,  where  it 
was  not  now  desirable  that  the  Governor's  Palace 
should  be  too  luxurious.  With  the  vast  numbers  of 
religious  and  philanthropic  institutions  in  Cairo  it 
was  not  his  intention  to  tamper. 

The  administration  of  the  new  province  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire  had  for  its  aim  the  suppression  of 
any  forces  that  might  make  for  independence.  Three 
powers  were,  therefore,  created,  whose  mutual  jeal- 
ousies might  serve  as  a  safeguard  to  the  sovereign 
state.  These  powers  were  the  Pasha,  or  governor, 
sent  from  Constantinople,  and  often  recalled  after  a 
few  years,  or  even  months:  an  army  of  occupation 
divided  into  six  regiments  under  a  commander  who 
was  to  reside  in  the  Citadel,  and  leave  it  under  no 
pretext  whatever,  while  to  each  regiment  six  officers 
with  different  duties  were  assigned.  These  officers 
together  formed  the  governor's  council,  and  had  the 
right  to  veto  his  orders.  The  third  power  was  the 
Mamelukes,  who  provided  the  Beys  or  heads  of  the 
twelve  provinces  or  Sanjaks  into  which  Egypt  was 
divided.  The  Sultan  who  succeeded  Selim,  Sulai- 
man,  and  who  reigned  forty-two  years,  further  cre- 
ated two  Chambers,  called  respectively  the  Greater 
and  the  Lesser  Diwan;  of  these  the  former  sat  on 
important  occasions,  the  latter  daily.  The  members 
of  the  former  were  partly  military,  partly  ecclesias- 

[229] 


CAIRO,    JERUSALEM,    AND    DAMASCUS 

tical  officials,  while  the  religious  officers  of  Islam 
were  not  represented  on  the  latter.  The  control  of 
both  extended  to  various  departments  of  internal  ad- 
ministration. This  Sultan  also  added  a  seventh  regi- 
ment to  the  existing  six,  in  which  the  Mameluke 
freedmen  were  enrolled.  The  total  numbers  of  the 
army  of  occupation  thus  came  to  about  20,000.  Be- 
sides the  title  Pasha  which  the  Turkish  conquest  in- 
troduced into  Egypt  there  are  a  variety  of  others  that 
meet  us  first  from  this  time.  Such  is  Agha,  the  name 
for  the  commander  of  the  forces,  or  of  the  separate 
regiments;  Ketkhuda  or  Kehya,  the  Pasha's  deputy, 
used  also  as  the  title  of  an  official  attached  to  each 
regiment:  Bey  and  Efendi;  most  of  these  had  at  the 
first  special  applications,  which  in  the  course  of  time 
they  lost,  degrading  into  a  mere  hierarchy  of  titles. 

The  first  governor  appointed  in  Egypt  by  the  Otto- 
man Sultan  was  Khair  Bey,  the  man  who  is  supposed 
to  have  betrayed  the  cause  of  his  master  Ghuri,  who 
when  he  reached  Syria  in  his  campaign  against  the 
Ottomans  was  repeatedly  warned  against  this  lieu- 
tenant, but  was  afraid  of  causing  open  division  in 
his  force  if  he  showed  his  suspicions  openly.  Having 
to  command  one  of  the  divisions  of  the  Egyptian 
Army  in  the  battle  of  Marj  Dabik,  he  is  supposed  to 
have,  by  preconcerted  arrangement  with  the  enemy, 
made  his  men  leave  the  field,  a  proceeding  which,  of 
course,  led  to  a  general  rout.  His  government  lasted 
rather  more  than  five  years,  and  owing  to  his  unpopu- 
larity with  his  Moslem  subjects,  he  espoused  the 
cause  of  the  Jews  and  Christians.    He  is  celebrated 

[230] 


■■:^ 


.f  ■'  'i* 


J' 


MOSgUKS    IX   THE   SHAKIA    HAB-KL-WAZIR,   CAIRO. 


\ 


THE   TURKISH    PERIOD 

for  a  deathbed  repentance.  When  he  despaired  of 
life  he  liberated  all  except  criminals  who  were 
pining  in  the  dungeons  of  Cairo,  and  caused  quanti- 
ties both  of  goods  and  coin  to  be  distributed  among 
the  indigent  and  those  who  were  dependent  on  the 
religious  institutions  of  the  capital.  His  mosque  is 
close  to  that  of  Ibrahim  Agha  in  the  quarter  called 
after  him  Kharbakiyyeh,  and  it  is  there  that  he  lies. 

His  successor  Mustafa,  the  Sultan  Selim's  son-in- 
law,  was  the  first  of  the  governor's  of  Egypt  who  had 
the  title  Pasha  (pronounced  in  Egypt  Basha).  The 
contemporary  historian  gives  a  rather  humorous  ac- 
count of  his  arrival,  and  receiving  deputations  lying 
on  his  back,  and  through  his  ignorance  of  the  na- 
tional language  looking  as  though  he  were  made  of 
wood. 

The  need  for  provision  against  attempts  on  the 
part  of  governors  to  render  themselves  independent 
of  the  Porte  was  shown  very  soon  after  the  conquest; 
the  third  of  the  governors  sent,  Ahmad  Pasha,  made 
such  an  endeavour,  and  went  so  far  as  to  assume  the 
insignia  of  sovereignty  in  the  East,  having  his  name 
mentioned  in  public  prayers,  and  having  coins 
struck  in  his  name — and  indeed  the  right  to  an  inde- 
pendent coinage  had  been  left  to  Egypt  by  the  Otto- 
man conqueror.  The  safeguards  which  had  been  de- 
vised were  found  to  work  effectually;  two  emirs 
whom  Ahmad  had  imprisoned  broke  from  their  con- 
finement, and  attacked  the  ambitious  Pasha  in  his 
bath.  Though  he  escaped  their  onslaught  and  got 
away,  he  was  presently  captured,  and  his  head,  after 

[233] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

being  suspended  on  Bad  Zuwailah,  was  sent  to  Con- 
stantinople. 

The  history  of  Egypt  during  the  first  century  of 
Ottoman  rule  has  little  interest  even  for  Egyptians. 
It  consists  of  a  series  of  governors,  sometimes  no 
sooner  appointed  than  recalled,  of  whom  a  few  built 
schools  or  mosques  in  the  style  of  the  old  Mameluke 
Sultans,  while  most  spent  their  time,  as  might  be 
expected,  in  profiting  as  well  as  they  could  by  their 
opportunity  of  acquiring  wealth.  Of  governors  who 
perpetuated  their  names  by  monuments  we  may  es- 
pecially mention  Sinan  Pasha,  who  governed  from 
1567  to  1571,  with  an  interval,  and  Masih  Pasha, 
governor  from  1575  to  1580.  The  name  of  Sinan 
Pasha  is  otherwise  famous  in  Turkish  history  for  his 
wars  in  North  Africa.  He  founded  a  mosque  with 
its  ordinary  accompaniments  in  Boulak,  and  the  deed 
of  settlement  contains  the  elaborate  provisions  for  its 
maintenance  to  which  we  are  accustomed.  The  con- 
trol of  the  funds  was  to  lapse  after  his  death  to  the 
Sheik  of  Islam  or  highest  ecclesiastical  authority 
in  Constantinople,  who  was  to  appoint  a  suitable 
agent  in  Egypt. 

Masih  Pasha  left  a  monument  in  the  Masihi 
Mosque  in  the  street  called  after  his  name,  east  of  the 
Bab  al-Karafah.  It  is  called  after  Nur  al-din  al- 
Karafi,  a  learned  man  of  the  time,  for  whose  devo- 
tions and  perhaps  lectures  it  was  built,  and  in  it  he, 
and  perhaps  the  founder,  have  their  last  resting 
place.  Masih  Pasha  is  commended  by  the  chron- 
iclers for  having  restored  peace  to  Cairo  with  se- 

[234] 


THE   TURKISH    PERIOD 

curity  for  life  and  property,  and  for  having  ordered 
all  his  rescripts  to  be  prefaced  with  some  pious  senti- 
ments out  of  the  Koran.  His  methods  of  restoring 
order  were  apparently  drastic  in  the  extreme,  as  they 
are  said  to  have  involved  the  execution  of  some 
10,000  persons. 

For  various  reasons  the  Ottoman  Pasha  exhibited 
the  tendency  which  the  nominal  head  of  the  state  or 
province  so  often  displayed  in  the  East,  that  of  ceas- 
ing to  be  virtually  at  the  head  of  affairs.  The  char- 
acter of  the  army  of  occupation  enabled  it  to  dispose 
of  the  Pasha  as  it  wished,  and  get  rid  of  him  by  vio- 
lence if  his  measures  were  displeasing  to  it.  When 
the  Pasha  took  the  part  of  the  people  of  Egypt,  and 
wished  to  relieve  them  of  onerous  exactions  by  which 
the  army  profited,  he  had  the  army  against  him.  One 
of  these  Pashas  had  to  face  an  organised  revolt,  of 
which  the  leaders  had  even  chosen  a  sovereign  to 
supersede  him.  With  the  aid  of  some  troops  that  re- 
mained faithful,  and  the  guns  at  his  disposal  he  suc- 
ceeded in  quelling  it.  Large  numbers  of  the  disaf- 
fected were  then  banished  to  Yemen,  while  some 
seventy  were  executed.  And  in  the  troubles  over  the 
succession  at  Constantinople,  which  followed  on  the 
decease  of  the  Sultan  Ahmad  I.,  the  Egyptian  forces 
could  defy  the  Porte  and  choose  their  own  governor 
in  opposition  to  the  sovereign's  views.  This  gover- 
nor, Mustafa  Pasha,  used  the  opportunity  of  a  terri- 
ble pestilence  which  devastated  the  country  in  1625 
to  declare  himself  heir  to  all  property  left  by  its 
victims.     The  feeling  which  he  roused  against  him- 

[235] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

self  by  this  proceeding  led  to  his  downfall,  and  the 
Porte  had  no  difficulty  in  recalling  him.  His  suc- 
cessor compelled  him  to  disgorge  his  plunder,  and 
he  himself  was  executed  in  Constantinople. 

The  process  by  which  there  came  to  be  substituted 
for  the  influence  of  the  Pasha  that  of  the  chief  of 
the  Mamelukes,  called  Sheik  al-Balad  (something 
like  Mayor  of  the  City),  is  not  easy  to  follow.  It 
would  seem  that  the  perpetual  changes  at  headquar- 
ters and  the  disputes  between  the  governor  and  the 
army  left  a  bureaucracy  the  chance  of  gaining  or 
regaining  power,  by  the  possession  of  hereditary 
acquaintance  with  the  affairs  of  the  country  which 
the  strangers  sent  from  Constantinople  did  not  pos- 
sess, and  also  by  the  bureaucrats  being  identified  in 
their  interests  with  a  permanent  part  of  the  popula- 
tion. What  is  clear  is  that  the  practice  of  Mameluke 
times,  the  acquisition  by  wealthy  persons  of  Circas- 
sian, Turkish  and  other  slaves,  whom  they  trained 
in  arms  and  whom  they  could  promote  to  places  of 
w^ealth,  did  not  cease  with  the  Turkish  occupation, 
and  that  the  Mamelukes  remained  a  power  in  the 
country  through  the  whole  of  this  period.  By  the 
end  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Sheik  al-Balad 
becomes  an  official,  of  first-class  importance.  When 
a  governor  was  sent  from  Constantinople,  the  Sheik 
and  his  associates  would  despatch  a  deputation  to 
Alexandria  to  inquire  into  his  intentions.  If  they 
found  him  likely  to  be  a  peaceful  nonentity,  they 
would  condescend  to  give  him  an  official  welcome, 
whereas  if  he  seemed  likely  to  assert  himself  they 

[236] 


A   SIDK   STREET    IN   CAIRO. 


THE   TURKISH    PERIOD 

would  bid  him  remain  where  he  was,  while  sending 
word  to  Constantinople  that  the  governor  appointed 
was  unfit  for  the  post  and  that  his  arrival  would  be 
injurious  to  the  welfare  of  the  community.  The 
army  of  occupation  appears  to  have  been  perma- 
nently quartered  in  the  capital  and  so  to  have  gradu- 
ally transferred  its  allegiance  to  the  permanent  Emirs. 
By  the  early  eighteenth  century  the  Mamelukes  are 
themselves  divided  into  facjtions,  named  respectively 
the  Kasimites  and  Fijarites,  whose  origin  is  mysteri- 
ous, but  may  go  back  to  the  time  of  the  conqueror 
Selim,  or  be  much  later.  Nothing  appears  to  be 
heard  of  the  rivalry  between  these  factions  till  the 
year  1707,  when  Hasan  Pasha,  one  of  the  ephemeral 
governors,  set  himself  to  create  bad  blood  between 
the  two  with  so  much  success  that  a  battle  was  fought 
lasting  eighty  days.  The  Mamelukes  had,  it  is  said, 
the  consideration  to  go  outside  Cairo  and  carry  on 
the  fight  in  the  daytime,  without  interfering  with  the 
business  of  the  inhabitants;  at  night  they,  or  such  of 
them  as  survived  the  fray,  went  home  and  reposed 
like  ordinary  citizens.  In  this  prolonged  battle,  the 
Sheik  al-Balad  Kasim  lywaz  perished.  He  was 
succeeded  in  his  municipal  office  by  his  son  Isma'il 
Bey,  who  was  fortunate  enough  to  be  able  to  recon- 
cile the  contending  parties  for  the  time.  How  much 
more  influential  the  Sheik  al-Balad  was  now  than 
the  governor  is  shown  by  a  story  in  which  Isma'il 
compels  the  latter  to  restore  a  quantity  of  coffee 
which  was  in  the  possession  of  a  man  whose  execu- 
tion had  been  ordered  from  Constantinople.      He 

[239] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

held  the  office  sixteen  years,  when  his  end  was 
brought  on  by  a  concession  to  one  of  his  faction,  the 
Kasimites,  who  desired  to  seize  an  estate  belonging 
to  a  Fikarite.  The  Fikarite  complained  to  the 
Pasha,  who  could  only  suggest  to  him  that  he  had 
best  get  an  assassin  to  put  an  end  to  Isma'il.  This 
suggestion  was  successfully  executed,  and  the  con- 
fusion which  arose  gave  the  Pasha  opportunity  to 
organise  a  general  massacre  of  Isma'il's  followers 
and  to  assign  his  place  to  the  head  of  a  rival  faction 
named  Shirkas  Bey. 

It  illustrates  the  condition  of  Egypt  at  this  time 
that  the  assassin,  on  whom  the  wealth  of  his  victim 
had  been  bestowed  as  a  reward,  was  in  a  position  to 
purchase  and  train  a  force  of  Mamelukes,  with  whose 
aid  he  was  able  to  eject  Shirkas  Bey,  the  Sheik 
al-Balad,  and  install  himself  in  the  vacant  place^ 
when  he  proceeded  to  execute  numerous  Beys,  with 
the  idea  of  founding  a  tyranny.  The  expelled 
Shirkas  Bey  was  repeatedly  invited  by  the  discon- 
tented to  unseat  the  usurper,  but  failed  and  was 
finally  defeated  and  drowned;  while  the  assassin 
(named  Dhu'l-Fikar)  himself  presently  fell  a  victim 
to  an  onslaught  similar  to  that  which  had  been  the 
foundation  of  his  fortunes.  His  lieutenant,  Othman 
Bey,  avenged  his  death  by  numerous  executions,  and 
succeeded  in  obtaining  the  place  of  Sheik  al-Balad, 
though  one  of  his  rivals  attempted  the  familiar  strat- 
agem of  preparing  a  banquet  which  was  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  massacre  of  Othman  and  his  party,  who 
had  been  invited  to  it;  Othman  had,  however,  taken 

[240] 


THE   TURKISH    PERIOD 

precautions,  and  his  rival  fled  to  Constantinople  after 
seeing  his  helpers'  heads  lying  severed  outside  the 
Hasanain  Mosque. 

Othman  Bey  is  the  hero  of  various  stories  showing 
that  he  left  on  the  people  of  Cairo  a  favourable  im- 
pression of  his  justice  and  courage.  The  former 
quality  is  illustrated  by  an  anecdote  recorded  by 
by  Zaidan.  A  donkey-boy  (the  word  "  boy  "  in  this 
context  implies  nothing  as  to  age)  found  in  his  house 
some  treasure,  which  he  put  in  his  wife's  charge, 
telling  her  to  conceal  the  find,  lest  the  government 
should  claim  it  as  treasure  trove.  This  she  consented 
to  do;  but  when  her  husband  refused  to  buy  her 
some  ornaments  with  the  wealth  now  at  his  disposal, 
she  betrayed  the  discovery  to  Othman  Bey.  The 
donkey-boy  was  summoned  before  the  Sheik  al- 
Balad,  who  to  his  surprise  bade  him  retain  the  treas- 
ure, but  divorce  his  wife. 

A  fresh  couple  of  names  that  meet  us  in  Egyptian 
politics  of  this  period  is  that  of  the  Kazdoglu  and  the 
Julfi  Mamelukes.  The  founder  of  the  first  faction 
was  a  saddler  by  profession;  the  eponymous  hero  of 
the  latter  was  a  porter,  who  became  possessed  of  a 
secret  hoard.  The  heads  of  these  factions,  named 
Ibrahim  and  Ridwan  respectively,  formed  in  Oth- 
man Bey's  time  a  close  alliance,  and  by  their  united 
wealth  won  such  influence  that  they  were  in  a  posi- 
tion to  challenge  Othman  Bey's  supremacy.  The 
latter  endeavoured  to  form  a  counter-alliance  of  in- 
fluential Beys,  who  advised  the  assassination  of  Ibra- 
him, at  that  time  Ketkhuda  of  the  Janissary  regiment. 

[241] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

The  plot  was  betrayed  by  an  official  in  the  household 
of  Othman  Bey,  who,  fearing  reprisals,  fled  to  Syria, 
leaving  Cairo  clear  to  the  hostile  factions.  The  lead- 
ers of  these,  having  possessed  themselves  of  Othman's 
house  and  efifects,  proceeded  to  organise  a  massacre 
of  his  supporters.  These  were  lured  into  the  Citadel, 
the  gates  closed  on  them,  and  firing  upon  them  or- 
dered. The  Pasha's  consent  had  been  obtained  for 
this  proceeding,  which  he  would  probably  have  been 
unable  to  prevent.  When  it  was  over,  the  govern- 
ment remained  in  the  hands  of  Ibrahim  Bey  and 
Isma'il  Bey,  who  agreed  to  take  the  offices  of  Sheik 
al-Balad  and  Leader  of  the  Pilgrim  Caravan,  and 
hold  them  in  alternate  years;  a  curious  form  of  dual 
sovereignty  which  was  successfully  imitated  at  a 
later  period.  The  former,  who  was  the  more  ener- 
getic of  the  two,  immediately  set  about  recouping 
himself  for  the  money  expended  in  the  attainment  of 
his  ambition,  by  a  series  of  violent  extortions,  prac- 
tised on  all  in  Cairo  who  were  supposed  to  be  pos- 
sessed of  means.  An  attempt  was  made  to  overthrow 
the  two  Consuls  by  one  of  the  ephemeral  Pashas. 
Ibrahim's  absence  on  pilgrimage  ofifered  a  good  op- 
por4:unity  for  devising  a  plot,  and  in  fact  after  Ibra- 
him's return  he  and  his  colleague  were  actually 
seized  and  imprisoned.  Their  supporters,  however, 
came  to  the  rescue,  broke  open  their  prison,  and 
drove  the  refractory  Pasha  back  to  Constantinople. 

The  new  Pasha  came  with  instructions  to  gain  the 
confidence  of  the  Beys,  with  a  view  to  getting  them 
at  some  time  into  his  power,  and  restoring  the  effec- 

[242] 


THE   TURKISH    PERIOD 

tive  control  of  the  Porte  by  a  massacre.  But  Ibrahim 
Bey  was  wary,  and  though  the  coup  was  not  at- 
tempted till  the  new  governor  had  been  in  office  two 
years,  it  only  partially  succeeded;  Ibrahim  Bey  him- 
self escaped,  and  only  three  of  his  adherents  were 
killed.  The  Sheik  al-Balad  thereupon  took  it  upon 
himself  to  depose  the  Governor,  and  sent  to  Constan- 
tinople requesting  that  he  be  replaced.  Into  one  of 
the  vacant  Beyships  he  promoted  Ali,  known  as  Ali 
Bey  the  Great,  destined  to  play  a  somewhat  impor- 
tant part  in  the  history  of  Egypt;  he  was  a  freedman 
of  Ibrahim,  who  had  won  his  esteem  by  fighting  and 
defeating  a  gang  of  brigands  who  attacked  the  Pil- 
grim Caravan.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Ahmad 
Ibn  Tulun  won  his  spurs  by  a  not  very  dissimilar 
exploit. 

The  promotion  of  Ali  Bey  evoked  the  jealousy  of 
another  follower  of  Ibrahim  Bey,  called  Ibrahim  the 
Circassian,  who  presently  gave  vent  to  his  resentment 
by  murdering  his  master;  whose  office  fell  to  his  col- 
league Ridwan,  who  had  maintained  friendly  rela- 
tions with  Ibrahim  Bey  all  along.  But  another  fol- 
lower of  Ibrahim  Bey  who  himself  aspired  to  the 
headship  was  able  to  direct  the  guns  of  the  Citadel 
at  the  palace  of  Ridwan  overlooking  the  Elephant's 
Pool,  and  in  the  course  of  the  bombardment  to  inflict 
a  wound  on  Ridwan  himself  of  which  he  shortly 
after  died.  His  murderer,  however,  soon  succumbed 
to  the  resentment  of  Ridwan's  friends,  and  a  certain 
Khalil  Bey  became  Sheik  al-Balad. 

For  eight  years  Ali  Bey  kept  pursuing  the  plan  by 

[243] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

which  the  sovereignty  of  Egypt  had  been  so  often 
acquired,  that  of  purchasing  slaves  and  training 
them  as  a  bodyguard,  while  doing  his  utmost  to  con- 
ciliate the  other  Beys.  Finally  his  proceedings 
aroused  the  suspicions  of  the  Sheik  al-Balad,  who 
endeavoured  to  get  rid  of  him  by  an  open  assault. 
Ali  Bey's  bodyguard  defended  their  master,  but  were 
defeated  and  compelled  to  flee  to  Upper  Egypt;  his 
office  and  those  of  his  adherents  were  declared  for- 
feited, and  many  persons  known  to  belong  to  his 
party  executed.  In  Upper  Egypt  Ali  Bey  found 
other  malcontents,  who,  joining  his  bodyguard,  made 
up  an  army  large  enough  to  warrant  an  attack  on 
Cairo,  which  he  did  not  hesitate  to  execute.  In  a 
series  of  successful  engagements  Ali  Bey  drove  his 
rival  northwards,  and  finally  obtained  possession  of 
his  person.  Khalil  Bey  was  first  banished,  and  then 
executed.  Ali  Bey  remained  supreme  in  Egypt,  and 
in  1763  was  installed  Sheik  al-Balad. 

Shortly  after  his  appointment  he  ordered  the  exe- 
cution of  the  murderer  of  his  former  master  Ibrahim 
Bey,  an  act  which  was  so  ill  received  by  the  other 
Beys  that  Ali  Bey  had  to  flee  from  Egypt  to  Jeru- 
salem and  then  Acre.  At  the  latter  place  he  suc- 
ceeded in  winning  the  favour  and  affection  of  the 
commander  of  the  garrison,  who  obtained  from  Con- 
stantinople confirmation  of  his  appointment  as 
Sheik  al-Balad  at  Cairo,  whither  he  proceeded  to 
return. 

Ali  Bey  appears  to  have  possessed  the  qualities 
which  appertained  to  most  of  the  great  founders  of 

[244] 


A   STKEKl    SCENE    IN    CAIRO. 


THE   TURKISH    PERIOD 

dynasties  in  Egypt — astuteness,  courage  and  ruthless- 
ness.  Jazzar,  who  as  governor  of  Acre  acquired  a 
European  reputation  for  the  last  of  these  qualities, 
began  his  career  as  one  of  his  lieutenants,  sent  out  by 
him  to  quell  a  rebellion  in  the  southern  provinces 
of  Egypt.  Ali  elevated  eighteen  persons  to  the  rank 
of  Bey,  hoping  thereby  to  provide  himself  with  faith- 
ful and  powerful  supporters,  since  each  of  them  com- 
manded some  sort  of  force.  These  were,  as  usual, 
Circassians  or  Georgians.  His  ultimate  aim  was  to 
render  Egypt  independent  of  the  Sublime  Porte,  be- 
ing herein  as  in  much  else  the  precursor  of  Moham- 
med Ali.  With  this  view  he  endeavoured  to  oust  on 
one  pretext  or  another  all  the  nominees  of  the  Porte 
from  their  places  in  the  Egyptian  army,  and  to  fill 
the  vacancies  with  creatures  of  his  own.  A  much 
more  momentous  step,  and  one  which  must  surely 
have  been  attempted  before,  was  to  monopolise  the 
right  to  purchase  and  train  Mamelukes,  and  so  to  pre- 
vent possible  rivals  arising  in  Cairo  itself. 

When  in  1768  war  broke  out  between  Turkey  and 
Russia  Egypt  was  ordered  to  provide  12,000  men 
for  the  Porte.  Ali  Bey  began  to  draft  them,  but  it 
was  uncertain  whether  he  intended  them  to  aid  the 
Sultan  or  the  Czar.  Every  provincial  governor 
from  the  commencement  of  the  Caliphate  had  found 
it  necessary  to  maintain  spies  at  the  metropolis,  and 
those  kept  by  Ali  Bey  at  Constantinople  informed 
him  on  this  occasion  that  despatches  were  being  sent 
to  the  Pasha  at  Cairo  to  put  Ali  Bey  to  death.  The 
Sheik  al-Balad  was  ready  for  the  emergency;  he 

[247] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

had  the  envoys  waylaid  and  killed,  and  their  bodies 
buried  in  the  sand,  while  he  himself  secured  the  de- 
spatches, of  which  he  published  an  account  suitable 
to  his  purpose.  He  averred  that  what  was  ordered 
from  Constantinople  was  a  general  massacre  of  the 
Mamelukes,  and  urged  his  colleagues  to  fight  for 
their  lives.  In  a  powerful  oration  he  reminded  them 
of  the  old  glories  of  the  Mameluke  Sultans,  of  whose 
monuments  Cairo  was  full.  The  time  had  now  ar- 
rived to  revive  the  old  Mameluke  Sultanate,  and  free 
Egypt  from  the  Ottoman  yoke.  His  speech  carried 
conviction,  and  his  project  was  approved.  The 
Pasha  was  given  forty-eight  hours  to  leave  the  coun- 
try. Ali  Bey's  old  friend  the  governor  of  Acre 
promised  his  warm  support  to  the  Sheik  al-Balad's 
plans,  and  an  attempt  made  by  the  governor  of  Da- 
mascus to  reduce  him  to  order  was  defeated  with  loss. 

The  Porte  being  unable  owing  to  the  European 
war  to  attend  to  remote  provinces,  Ali  Bey  proceeded 
to  consolidate  his  power  in  Egypt,  and  sent  a  force 
to  reduce  Arabia.  Success  attended  his  efforts  in 
the  peninsula,  and  he  further  despatched  his  son-in- 
law  and  favourite  Abu'l-Dhahab,  with  a  force 
of  30,000  men  to  reduce  Syria,  and  here  too  his 
arms  were  successful.  Abu'l-Dhahab,  whose  name 
"  father  of  gold  "  was  earned,  it  is  said,  by  his  habit 
of  giving  all  his  charity  in  that  metal,  met  with  little 
resistance. 

But  now  the  fickle  goddess  began  to  assert  her 
character.  The  Syrian  lieutenant,  who  on  a  former 
occasion  had  been  concerned  in  a  plot  against  Ali 

[248] 


THE   TURKISH    PERIOD 

Bey,  in  which  his  part  had  been  condoned  in  con- 
sideration of  his  betraying  his  fellow-conspirators, 
preferred  to  conquer  for  himself  rather  than  for  his 
master;  and,  apparently,  entered  into  an  arrange- 
ment with  the  Porte  by  which  he  was  to  have  under 
Turkish  suzerainty  the  reversion  of  Ali  Bey's  posses- 
sions, if  he  succeeded  in  overthrowing  that  usurper. 
With  the  troops  employed  by  him  in  Syria  he  crossed 
to  Egypt,  where,  avoiding  Cairo,  he  made  for  South- 
ern Egypt,  and  seized  Asiout.  Ali,  being  quite  un- 
able to  defend  his  capital,  fled  once  more  to  his  bene- 
factor, the  governor  of  Acre,  followed  by  an  insig- 
nificant number  of  adherents.  At  the  time  when  he 
raised  the  standard  of  revolt  from  the  Porte  he  had 
endeavoured  to  enter  into  alliance  with  Venice  and 
Russia,  and  his  negotiations  had  met  with  fair  suc- 
cess. Such  a  measure  was  at  that  time  risky  for  any- 
one who  depended  on  the  favour  of  a  Moslem  nation, 
since  alliance  with  Infidels  against  Believers  is  not 
only  liable  to  denunciation  as  being  in  defiance  of 
the  doctrines  of  the  Koran,  but  could  be  shown  his- 
torically to  be  disastrous.  However,  at  Acre  Ali 
Bey  enjoyed  the  fruits  of  his  Russian  policy,  as  a 
Muscovite  fleet  which  happened  to  be  there  renewed 
the  alliance  with  the  refugee,  and  encouraged  him  to 
retake  the  Syrian  cities  which,  after  the  departure 
of  Abu'l-Dhahab,  had  fallen  back  into  Ottoman 
possession;  and  about  a  year  after  his  flight  messages 
came  from  Cairo  requesting  his  return  to  Egypt,  to 
put  a  stop  to  the  arbitrary  regime  introduced  by 
Abu'l-Dhahab,  who  had  assumed  the  title  Sheik  al- 

[249] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

Balad,  and  was  rendering  himself  unpopular  by 
coercive  measures. 

Ali  Bey  thereupon  decided  to  march  into  Egypt 
with  a  motley  force  of  eight  thousand  men,  and  in 
an  engagement  with  his  rival  at  Salihiyyah  scored  a 
slight  success.  But  his  alliance  with  Christian 
powers  against  the  Turks  had  brought  his  cause  into 
disrepute  with  the  Moslems  of  Egypt,  and  he  learned 
that  he  could  count  on  no  effective  aid  from  his  par- 
tisans in  Cario;  illness  and  wounds,  moreover,  pre- 
vented his  taking  an  active  part  in  the  management 
of  his  affairs.  Abu'l-Dhahab,  besides,  exhibited  far 
more  skill  than  Ali  Bey  in  winning  over  adherents 
from  the  opposite  party  by  various  modes  of  corrup- 
tion. In  a  following  engagement  many  of  Ali  Bey's 
soldiers  and  captains  left  him  for  the  enemy,  and 
those  that  remained  faithful  fled  in  confusion.  Ali 
had  not  himself,  owing  to  illness,  been  able  to  take 
part  in  the  battle,  and  his  routed  followers  desired 
him  to  mount  a  horse  as  well  as  he  could,  and  once 
more  seek  refuge  at  Acre.  He  determined  that  death 
was  preferable  to  this  humiliation,  and  waited  by  his 
tent  until  a  detachment  of  the  enemy  came  up  to  it; 
with  these  he  fought  bravely  till  disabled  by  shots 
and  thrusts.  He  was  finally  taken  and  conveyed  to 
his  house  in  Cairo  "  in  the  Abd  al-Hakk  Lane,  al- 
Bakir  Street,  behind  the  Debt  Chest,"  where  he  was 
not  molested ;  but  he  died  after  seven  days,  of  wounds 
and  chagrin. 

The  Egyptian  chroniclers  give  Ali  Bey  the  title 
*'  the  Great,"  which  is  perhaps  more  than  he  de- 

[250] 


THE   TURKISH    PERIOD 

served,  since  his  enterprise  left  no  permanent  mark 
on  the  fortunes  of  Egypt.  He,  apparently,  was  less 
to  blame  than  some  other  conquerors  of  that  country 
for  risking  all  in  the  attempt  to  acquire  possession  of 
Syria,  since  his  obligations  to  the  governor  of  Acre 
forced  this  upon  him.  He  appears  to  have  made  un- 
pardonable mistakes  in  the  choice  of  instruments. 
He  was  for  a  time  popular  in  Egypt  because  he  en- 
deavoured to  check  various  forms  of  extortion  which 
had  been  long  exercised;  but  it  is  observable  that  his 
cry  was  not  Egypt  for  the  Egyptians,  but  Egypt  for 
the  Mamelukes. 

During  the  period  covered  by  Othman  Bey  and 
All  Bey  vast  restorations  were  carried  out  in  the 
buildings  of  Cairo  by  a  man  whose  name  has  already 
met  us  in  connection  with  them,  Abd  al-Rahman 
Ketkhuda.  His  father  was  patron  of  a  certain  Oth- 
man Ketkhuda,  who  in  this  office  had  acquired  great 
wealth,  which  some  time  after  the  latter's  death  was 
assigned  to  his  patron's  son  in  virtue  of  a  theory  that 
the  property  of  freedmen  goes  to  those  who  have 
manumitted  them,  in  default  of  other  heirs.  Abd 
al-Rahman  further  attracted  the  notice  of  Othman 
Bey,  with  whom  he  went  on  pilgrimage,  and  by 
whom  on  their  return  to  Cairo  he  was  made  admin- 
istrator of  trusts.  He  utilised  the  funds  at  his  dis- 
posal for  a  general  restoration  of  the  religious  insti- 
tutions of  Cairo,  as  well  as  the  erection  of  a  variety 
of  monuments  which  were  to  perpetuate  his  own 
name.  His  work  of  renovation  extended  to  all  the 
sanctuaries  which  bear  the  names  of  famous  ladies 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

of  the  Prophet's  house.  Eighteen  mosques  were 
either  built  or  repaired  by  him,  all  these  being  places 
of  public  worship;  the  smaller  sanctuaries  which  he 
restored  were  still  more  numerous,  and  he  also  saw 
to  the  erection  of  numerous  cisterns,  fountains, 
bridges  and  other  engineering  works.  His  useful 
labours  were  continued  till  1764,  when  Ali  Bey  was 
in  power,  who,  fearing  the  influence  he  had  acquired, 
banished  him  to  the  Hejaz.  Twelve  years  later, 
when  the  days  of  Ali  Bey  were  over,  he  was  recalled 
to  Cairo,  only  to  die.  He  was  buried  in  a  mauso- 
leum that  he  had  prepared  for  himself  in  his  addi- 
tions to  al-Azhar.  His  personal  character  appears 
to  have  displayed  more  piety  than  virtue,  since  he  is 
credited  with  having  introduced  bribery  and  corrup- 
tion on  an  unprecedented  scdle — a  difficult  achieve- 
ment in  Egypt. 

Abu'l-Dhahab  was  rewarded  by  the  Porte  in  1772 
for  his  services  in  suppressing  Ali  Bey,  with  the  title 
Pasha  and  the  official  governorship  of  Cairo.  He 
did  not  enjoy  his  honours  long,  for  he  died — it  is  un- 
certain how — two  years  later  on  his  successful  ex- 
pedition for  the  recovery  of  Syria.  After  some 
disorders  two  of  the  Beys  created  by  Ali,  who  had 
afterwards  deserted  his  cause  for  that  of  his  rival, 
persons  named  Ibrahim  and  Murad  respectively,  got 
possession  of  the  Citadel,  and  agreed  on  a  divided 
rule  similar  to  that  which  had  been  arranged  between 
a  former  Ibrahim  and  Ridwan,  the  one  to  fill  the 
office  of  Sheik  al-Balad,  the  other  to  be  Leader  of 
the  Pilgrim  Caravan.     The  arrangement  was  at  the 

[252] 


THE  TURKISH    PERIOD 

first  marred  by  broils,  and  even  armed  conflicts,  but 
presently  the  two  found  themselves  able  to  work  har- 
moniously, and  their  government,  with  an  interrup- 
tion, lasted  on  till  the  French  invasion  of  Egypt. 
This  interruption  was  occasioned  by  an  expedition 
sent  from  Constantinople  to  restore  order  in  Egypt. 
The  episode  of  Ali  Bey  showed  that  the  assertion  of 
Ottoman  sovereignty  was  necessary,  and  indeed,  for 
a  long  time  the  official  representative  of  the  Sultan 
had  been  treated  with  scant  courtesy.  When  the 
Sheik  al-Balad  and  his  Emirs  wanted  a  Pasha  re- 
moved, they  sent  to  Constantinople  to  request  his 
removal.  An  emissary  would  then  be  despatched, 
who  would  be  introduced  to  the  Citadel,  where  he 
would  kneel  before  the  Pasha.  On  rising  he  would 
fold  up  the  carpet  on  which  he  had  knelt,  and  cry 
aloud.  Pasha,  descend!  The  Pasha  would  thereby 
be  deprived  of  his  office,  and  the  emissary  would  take 
temporary  charge. 

In  June,  1786,  the  Turkish  expedition  arrived  in 
Egypt,  and  the  Mamelukes  found  themselves  unable 
to  make  any  resistance  to  the  artillery  of  the  Otto- 
mans. Ibrahim  and  Murad  fled  before  the  invaders 
to  Upper  Egypt,  and  Cairo  was  seized  by  the  Turk- 
ish troops.  Their  treatment  of  the  population  was 
no  improvement  on  that  of  the  Beys,  and  only  the 
interference  of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  pre- 
vented atrocities  which  went  beyond  what  the  people 
of  Egypt  were  accustomed  to.  No  great  change  was 
made  in  the  system  of  government  by  the  conquerors, 
who   installed   as    Sheik   al-Balad   Isma'il   Bey,    a 

[253] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

former  supporter  of  All  Bey,  who  had  even  held  the 
office  for  a  short  time  after  the  death  of  Abu'l- 
Dhahab.  When,  in  1790,  he  and  most  of  his  family 
were  swept  off  by  a  plague,  Murad  and  Ibrahim  hav- 
ing had  experience  of  government,  found  it  possible 
to  return  to  Cairo  and  resume  the  offices  which  they 
had  previously  held.  Of  these  they  were  in  posses- 
sion when  in  1798  Bonaparte  invaded  the  country. 
Murad  Bey  carried  on  some  operations  ostensibly 
for  the  restoration  of  the  Mosque  of  Amr,  but  really, 
it  is  said,  in  order  to  discover  an  iron  chest  which  the 
Jews  knew  to  be  hidden  somewhere  about  the 
Mosque,  and  the  secret  of  whose  existence  they  had 
sold  to  Murad  as  the  price  of  his  remitting  an  ex- 
traordinary contribution  which  he  had  imposed  on 
their  community.  The  chest  was  discovered,  but 
found  to  contain  only  leaves  from  an  ancient  copy  of 
the  Koran.  Murad  Bey's  piety  was  not  sufficient  to 
make  him  consider  this  find  a  substitute  for  the  treas- 
ure which  he  had  expected,  and  the  Jews  got  harder 
terms  than  if  they  had  consented  to  the  imposition 
at  the  first. 

The  Turkish  period  was  on  the  whole  of  little 
importance  for  the  decoration  or  growth  of  Cairo, 
though,  as  has  been  seen,  some  Pashas  and  others 
went  to  the  expense  of  erecting  mosques,  and  many  a 
palace  was  built  by  the  wealthy  Mamelukes.  Writers 
on  Arab  art  usually  stop  at  the  taking  of  Cairo  by 
the  Ottomans,  because  the  architecture  of  Egypt 
from  that  time  becomes  more  and  more  dependent 
on  Turkish  models. 

[254] 


THE  TURKISH    PERIOD 

Many  European  travellers  visited  Cairo  between 
the  entry  of  Selim  and  that  of  Bonaparte,  and  some 
selections  from  their  experiences  are  put  together  by 
Mr.  W.  F.  Rae,  in  his  work  called  "  Egypt  To-day: 
the  First  to  the  Third  Khedive."  These  extracts  deal 
chiefly  with  the  condition  of  foreigners  in  Cairo, 
which  is  painted  in  very  dark  colours.  The  mass 
of  the  people,  we  are  told,  in  no  place  could  be  more 
barbarous  than  in  Cairo;  foreigners,  persecuted  and 
even  ill-treated  under  the  most  frivolous  pretexts, 
lived  there  in  perpetual  fear.  If  they  ventured  to 
appear  in  public  in  the  attire  of  their  own  country, 
they  would  be  infallibly  torn  in  pieces.  Bruce,  who 
visited  Cairo  in  1748,  asserts  that  a  more  brutal,  un- 
just, tyrannical,  oppressive,  avaricious  set  of  infernal 
miscreants  there  was  not  on  earth  than  the  members 
of  the  Government  of  Cairo.  Of  the  streets  it  was 
asserted  that  the  widest  would  be  looked  upon  as  a 
lane  in  Europe.  Hasselquist,  in  a  letter  to  Linne, 
dated  1750  from  Cairo,  said  that  if  a  man  were  guilty 
of  any  crime  he  could  not  expiate  it  better  than  by 
going  to  reside  for  a  little  while  in  that  city. 


[255] 


THE   KHEDIVIA    POLDERI 

'HE  sufferings  of  the  French  merchants 
resident  in  Cairo  would  have  been  a  suffi- 
cient justification  for  the  enterprise  of 
Bonaparte,  but  its  object  was  undoubtedly 
to  strike  a  blow  at  Great  Britain,  and  the  latter  coun- 
try endeavoured  to  stop  it  at  the  outset,  and  succeeded 
in  crippling  it  and  eventually  bringing  it  to  a  disas- 
trous termination.  On  the  history  of  the  French  oc- 
cupation of  Egypt,  which  has  often  been  described, 
we  need  not  dilate  here;  the  Beys  were  as  much  put 
out  of  their  reckoning  by  the  tactics  of  the  greatest 
general  of  the  age  as  the  Sultan  Ghuri  had  been  put 
out  of  his  by  the  artillery  of  the  Sultan  Selim.  The 
capture  of  the  Egyptian  capital  caused  the  plunder 
of  many  houses  by  the  invaders  and  the  mob,  and 
besides  meant  the  desecration  of  numerous  religious 
edifices  which  were  required  for  the  French  system 
of  fortification.  After  the  naval  engagement  of  Abu 
Kir  had  resulted  in  the  annihilation  of  the  French 
fleet,  the  people  of  Cairo  rose  against  the  invader  and 
barricaded  the  streets.  Bonaparte  planted  artillery 
on  all  high  points,  partly  destroyed  the  Husainiyyah 

[256] 


THE   KHEDIVIA   POLDERI 

quarter  where  the  fiercest  resistance  had  been  made, 
and  occupied  al-Azhar,  which  had  been  the  head- 
quarters of  disaffection,  with  a  force.  Cavalry 
stabled  their  horses  in  the  great  home  of  Moslem 
learning,  smashed  the  coloured  lamps  and  tried  to 
erase  the  verses  of  the  Koran  with  which  the  walls 
were  decorated.  Only  after  complete  submission  on 
the  part  of  the  insurgents,  and  the  intercession  of  the 
most  esteemed  sheik,  did  the  French  general  agree 
to  withdraw  his  soldiery  from  the  Mosque. 

Short  as  was  the  French  occupation  of  Cairo,  it 
marked  the  introduction  of  European  methods  into 
the  government  of  the  city,  which  it  was  left  to  the 
Khedivial  family  to  carry  out.  The  gates  which  had 
formerly  closed  the  streets  and  lanes  were  all  re- 
moved by  order  of  the  French  commander;  the  prac- 
tice of  lighting  the  streets  at  nights  was  introduced, 
and  for  administrative  purposes  the  city  was  divided 
into  eight  quarters  (or  rather  eighths),  each  under 
the  supervision  of  a  sheik.  To  the  French  are  due 
the  registration  of  births  and  deaths,  the  abolition  of 
intramural  interment  and  some  other  precautions  of 
sanitation.  An  honourable  monument  of  the  French 
occupation  is  the  great  "  Description  of  Egypt," 
well  worthy  of  the  keen  interest  in  science  and  archae- 
ology which  characterises  the  people  from  whom  it 
emanated. 

Whether  the  programme  of  the  French  occupation 
was  in  itself  consistent  and  intelligible  to  the  Egyp- 
tian people  is  not  very  clear,  but  it  may  be  considered 
to  have  first  formulated  the  Egyptian  nationalist  as- 

[259] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

pirations,  though  the  French  may  have  done  little  tO' 
gratify  them.  Ostensibly  the  invaders  w^ished  to 
abolish  the  tyranny  of  the  Mamelukes,  who  are  at- 
tacked in  their  manifestoes  in  violent  terms;  and 
though  the  Egyptians  at  first  supposed  that  the  pur- 
pose of  the  invasion  was  to  reclaim  the  country  for 
the  Sultan,  it  was  soon  shown  that  this  view  deviated 
widely  from  the  facts.  To  Bonaparte's  profession  of 
belief  in  Islam  apparently  no  importance  was  at- 
tached by  the  real  adherents  of  that  religion.  The 
Turkish  manifesto  which  declared  the  old  faiths  of 
Europe  to  be  far  nearer  Islam  than  the  religion  of 
the  French  Revolution  was  undoubtedly  in  accord- 
ance with  the  facts.  Most  writers  are  agreed  in 
regarding  these  professions  of  Mohammedanism  as. 
a  mistaken  policy.  The  French  occupation,  how- 
ever, while  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  moral  and 
political  standards  which  the  invaders  exhibited  were 
a  very  great  improvement  on  those  to  which  the 
Egyptians  are  accustomed,  prepared  the  country 
for  that  discipleship  to  Europe  which  it  underwent 
for  the  greater  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  is 
still  undergoing.  Other  invaders  were  no  further  ad- 
vanced than  the  Egyptians  in  science  and  culture; 
from  the  French  the  inhabitants  learned  that  in  such 
matters  they  were  far  behind.  The  respect  for  the 
ability  of  the  European,  which  is  now  so  often  ex- 
aggerated in  the  East,  begins  in  Egypt  with  the 
French  occupation.  And  the  cry  of  "  Liberty, 
Equality  and  Fraternity,"  which  perhaps  had  never 
been  heard  in  the  East  before,  at  least  with  any  prac- 

[260] 


THE    KHEDIVIA   POLDERI 

tical  meaning  attached  to  it,  could  not  fail  to  rouse 
an  echo  here  and  there  in  a  population  that  had  been 
accustomed  from  time  immemorial  to  despotism,  and 
for  centuries  to  the  despotism  of  foreigners. 

Like  Ali  Bey,  Bonaparte  regarded  the  possession 
of  Syria  as  necessary  to  the  security  of  Egypt,  and  in 
February,  1799,  he  started  on  a  career  of  conquest  in 
the  former  country,  which  terminated  with  the  well- 
known  check  at  Acre,  occasioned  by  the  co-operation 
of  the  British  fleet  under  Sir  Sidney  Smith  with  the 
Turkish  troops.  Bonaparte  on  his  return  had  to 
satisfy  himself  with  fortifying  al-Arish,  the  key  of 
Egypt,  in  lieu  of  the  possession  of  Syria,  but  the  fail- 
ure of  his  original  scheme  was  doubtless  the  cause  of 
his  evacuation  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile.  Murad  Bey 
and  Ibrahim  Bey,  who  had  been  in  retreat  in  Upper 
Egypt,  were  emboldened  by  the  defeat  of  Bonaparte 
to  proceed  southwards,  hoping  to  co-operate  with  a 
Turkish  force  that  was  to  land  at  Abu  Kir.  Bona- 
parte had,  however,  no  difficulty  in  defeating  the 
Beys,  and  afterwards  inflicting  a  crushing  blow  on 
the  Turks  at  the  moment  of  their  disembarking.  But 
from  the  English  squadron  at  Abu  Kir  he  learned 
news  of  European  affairs  which  determined  him  to 
quit  Egypt,  and  his  departure  sealed  the  future  of 
the  French  occupation  of  the  country. 

Kleber,  whom  Bonaparte  had  left  to  govern  at 
Cairo,  showed  himself  equal  to  dealing  with  a  diffi- 
cult situation,  and  arranged  by  an  honourable  con- 
vention at  the  beginning  of  1800  for  the  evacuation 
of  the  country;  the  rejoicings  in  Cairo  over  the  pros- 

[261] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

pective  departure  of  the  French  were  great,  and  an 
enforced  impost  was  cheerfully  paid.  The  Mame- 
lukes whose  houses  had  been  pillaged  and  who  had 
been  compelled  to  conceal  themselves,  began  to  re- 
turn, hoping  to  enjoy  a  new  lease  of  power;  and  one 
Nasif  Pasha  placed  himself  at  their  head.  Mean- 
while through  the  intervention  of  Great  Britain  the 
convention  was  rendered  ineffective;  an  Ottoman 
army  after  taking  al-Arish,  advanced  towards  Cairo, 
and  at  Matariyyah,  north  of  the  capital,  an  engage- 
ment took  place  in  which  the  united  forces  of  the 
Turks  and  Mamelukes  were  defeated  by  the  French 
general.  Nasif  Pasha,  retreating  from  the  battle- 
field, marched  to  Cairo  with  his  Mamelukes,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  rousing  the  Moslem  population  against  the 
French,  and  even  started  a  massacre  of  the  Christian 
population  both  native  and  foreign.  Nasif's  attacks 
on  the  Citadel  and  the  forts  in  the  possession  of  the 
French  were,  however,  unsuccessful,  and  in  a  bayonet 
charge  of  200  French  troops  in  the  Ezbekiyyeh  the 
superiority  of  European  discipline  asserted  itself  over 
the  Mamelukes  and  their  Cairene  allies.  The  French 
continued  to  bombard  the  city  from  the  Citadel  and 
the  forts,  while  batteries  were  erected  by  the  in- 
surgents with  cannon  dug  up  out  of  places  where 
they  had  been  hidden.  The  streets  were  barricaded ; 
a  powder  factory  was  improvised;  and  every  Moslem 
was  compelled  to  pass  the  night  in  the  discharge  of 
some  military  duty. 

Before  Nasif  Pasha  could  renew  his  attack  on  the 
French  headquarters,  and  when  the  insurrection  had 

[262] 


THE    KHEDIVIA   POLDERI 

lasted  two  whole  days,  a  force  arrived  to  relieve  tKe 
French  garrison,  having  been  sent  for  that  purpose 
by  Kleber.  The  vigour  and  enthusiasm  of  the  in- 
surgents and  the  able  measures  which  they  had  taken 
for  the  defence  of  the  streets  rendered  it  difficult  for 
the  French  relieving  force  to  retake  the  city.  And 
though  Nasif  Pasha,  when  Kleber  himself  arrived  on 
the  spot,  was  disposed  to  capitulate,  the  fanatical 
party  prevented  him  from  doing  so.  Kleber  resolved 
to  storm  Boulak  before  attacking  the  city,  and  on 
April  14,  1800,  carried  out  this  project  and  gave  up 
the  place  to  pillage  and  conflagration.  He  imme- 
diately proceeded  after  this  success  to  an  attack  upon 
the  city  itself,  in  which  numerous  houses  were  burned 
down,  especially  in  the  region  of  the  Ezbekiyyeh. 
Lighted  torches  were,  it  is  said,  flung  right  and  left 
by  the  soldiers,  with  the  object  of  destroying  the 
whole  city  by  conflagration ;  and  women  and  children 
flung  themselves  off  walls  and  roofs  to  escape  being 
burned.     Nasif  Pasha  himself  went  into  hiding. 

When  at  last  resistance  had  ceased,  Kleber  ordered 
an  amnesty  to  be  proclaimed,  and  proceeded  to  have 
the  streets  cleared  of  debris  and  corpses,  after  which 
a  three  days'  feast  was  announced  in  celebration  of 
the  victory.  The  arrest  of  fifteen  sheiks  and  their 
subsequent  release  on  payment  of  twelve  millions  of 
francs,  was  the  only  repressive  measure  which  fol- 
lowed the  retaking  of  Cairo.  Orders  were  then 
issued  to  repair  those  parts  of  the  city  that  had  suf- 
fered during  the  insurrection. 

Two    months    after    these    successful    operations 

[263] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

Kleber  was  assassinated  at  the  house  of  General 
Damas  in  the  Ezbekiyyeh ;  and  the  assassin  when  dis- 
covered was  shown  to  have  been  instigated  by  a  com- 
mander of  Janissaries,  and  to  have  been  in  communi- 
cation with  the  sheiks  of  al-Azhar,  three  of  whom 
were  condemned  to  execution  as  having  been  acces- 
sories before  the  fact.  The  assassin  himself  was 
impaled,  public  opinion  in  Europe  at  that  time  not 
sufficiently  condemning  the  barbarous  punishments 
in  use  in  the  East;  the  act,  however,  was  rendered  the 
more  culpable,  because  it  would  appear  that  the  man 
had  been  induced  to  confess  on  promise  of  a  free 
pardon. 

Kleber's  follower,  Menou,  was  an  eccentric  per- 
sonage, who  adopted  Islam,  and  tried  in  various  other 
ways  to  conciliate  the  Cairene  population,  with  whom 
he  gained  little  favour,  while  losing  his  influence 
with  the  French.  As  an  ardent  convert  he  deprived 
the  Egyptian  Christians  of  the  equality  which  under 
Bonaparte's  regime  they  had  shared  with  the  Mos- 
lems. As  an  equally  ardent  Frenchman  he  declared 
Egypt  a  French  colony,  whereas  till  then  the  suze- 
rainty of  the  Porte  had  been  nominally  recognised. 
He  had  soon,  however,  to  have  his  military  skill  put 
to  the  test,  and  this  proved  no  greater  than  his  admin- 
istrative ability. 

On  March  21  there  was  fought  the  action  in  which 
Sir  Ralph  Abercrombie,  having  landed  with  a 
British  force  at  Abu  Kir,  defeated  the  French  army 
brought  against  him  by  Menou,  at  the  cost  of  his  own 
life.     Four  days  later  the  English  were  reinforced 

[264] 


THE    KHEDIVIA    POLDERI 

by  a  body  of  Turks,  which  proceeded  to  capture 
Rosetta.  And  another  Turkish  army  was  now  on  its 
way  from  Syria  and  was  advancing  towards  Cairo. 
The  defence  of  that  city  had  been  left  to  General 
Belliard,  whom  Menou,  now  shut  up  in  Alexandria, 
had  left  in  command,  when  he  went  north  to  meet 
Abercrombie.  A  junction  having  been  effected  be- 
tween the  English  and  Turkish  armies,  Cairo  was 
invested;  and  the  French  commander  not  having 
sufficient  troops  to  hope  for  victory  over  the  allies,  an 
armistice  was  agreed  to  on  June  22,  followed  by  a 
convention  on  June  26,  by  which  Cairo  was  to  be 
evacuated  by  the  French  troops,  who  were  to  pro- 
ceed to  the  coast  and  embark  for  France.  The 
evacuation  of  Egypt  was  accomplished  a  few  months 
later. 

This  was  the  end  of  French  domination  in  Egypt, 
and  the  commencement  of  the  relations  of  Great  Brit- 
ain with  that  country.  At  first  the  Mamelukes 
seemed  to  have  their  star  in  the  ascendant.  A  con- 
tingent of  Mamelukes  had  been  with  the  force  that 
compelled  General  Belliard  to  treat  for  the  evacua- 
tion of  Cairo,  and  Ibrahim  Bey,  emerging  from  his 
hiding  place,  had  implored  the  assistance  of  the  Eng- 
lish General,  and  been  treated  with  respect.  Murad 
Bey  had  succeeded  in  negotiating  with  Kleber  before 
that  General  was  assassinated  and  had  by  him  been 
confirmed  in  the  government  of  Upper  Egypt.  He 
died  shortly  before  the  evacuation.  His  dependents 
broke  his  arms  over  his  bier,  in  token  that  no  one  was 
worthy  to  bear  them  after  him.     It  was  possible  that 

[265] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

the  end  of  the  foreign  occupation  might  lead  to  a 
resumption  of  the  old  regime.  Those,  therefore, 
who  aimed  at  ruling  Egypt  considered  that  the  relics 
of  the  Mamelukes  must  before  all  things  be  destroyed. 

The  process  was  commenced  by  the  agents  of  the 
Porte,  and  in  the  style  familiar  to  readers  of  Moslem 
history.  The  Turkish  Admiral  at  Abu  Kir  en- 
trapped a  number  of  Beys  into  his  barge  by  inviting 
them  to  a  conference,  and  this  barge  was  presently 
surrounded  and  attacked;  whereas  a  number  more 
were  bombarded  at  Gizeh  without  previous  intima- 
tion of  any  difference.  In  spite  of  these  disasters  the 
country  even  before  the  final  departure  of  the  English 
fell  back  fast  into  Mameluke  hands — little  besides 
Alexandria  and  Cairo  were  virtually  subject  to  the 
Porte,  and  the  newly  appointed  Pasha  was  unable  to 
procure  the  money  to  pay  the  troops  who  now  oc- 
cupied the  Citadel. 

The  situation  gave  an  opportunity  to  a  man  who 
proved  himself  well  qualified  to  use  it — Mohammed 
Ali,  the  founder  of  the  dynasty  that  now  reigns  in 
Egypt;  often  called  by  anticipation  the  first  Khedive, 
wrongly,  inasmuch  as  that  title  was  conferred  first 
on  Isma'il  Pasha;  yet  not  without  ground,  since  the 
fortunes  of  the  Khedivial  family  were  made  by  the 
founder  of  the  line.  He  comes  to  the  front  in  history 
first  as  leader  of  a  corps  of  Albanians  in  the  Turkish 
force  which  soon  after  the  arrival  of  the  English  took 
Rosetta;  his  birthplace  was  Cavalla,  where  he  lost 
his  parents  in  infancy  but  received  kindness  from  an 
uncle,  and  also  from  a  French  resident,  a  fact  which 

[266] 


THE    KHEDIVIA   POLDERI 

did  much  towards  determining  Mohammed  Ali's 
Francophile  policy  at  a  later  time.     Like  other  resi- 
dents in   Cavalla  in  his  early  years  he  traded  in 
tobacco,  with  conspicuous  success.     Coming  to  Egypt 
with  the  Turkish  force  sent  out  for  the  recovery  of 
the  country,  he  advanced  in  the  service  by  leaps  and 
bounds,  and  was  after  a  short  time  given  command 
over  a  force  of  between  three  and  four  thousand  Al- 
banians by  Khosrau   Pasha,   a  Georgian  freedman 
of  the  Turkish  Admiral,  who  at  the  latter's  suggestion 
had  been  installed  by  the  Porte  in  the  government 
of  Egypt.     In  the  struggle  that  ensued  on  the  one 
hand   between   the   governor   and   his   discontented 
soldiers,  on  the  other,  between  the  Turks  and  the 
Mamelukes,  Mohammed  Ali  succeeded  in  at  first 
holding  the  balance  between  the  parties,  and  pres- 
ently found  an  opportunity  for  decisive  action  when 
Khosrau  Pasha  had  been  driven  by  a  revolution  in 
the  Citadel  to  fly  in  the  direction  of  Damietta,  and 
another  ephemeral  ruler  had  been  installed  in  Khos- 
rau's  place.     Mohammed  Ali  decided  to  join  forces 
with  the  Mameluke  leaders,  Othman  al-Bardisi  and 
the  veteran  Ibrahim  Bey,  took  possession  of  the  Cita- 
del, and  drove  out  of  it  all  troops  save  his  own  Al- 
banians and  those  under  the  Mamelukes;  he  then 
proceeded  in  the  direction  of  Damietta,  where  he 
compelled  the  Pasha  to  capitulate.     At  first,  appar- 
ently, the  old  system  was  to  be  restored ;  Bardisi,  the 
Mameluke  leader,  was  to  be  in  a  position  similar  to 
that  held  by  the  Sheik  al-Balad,  whether  with  or 
without  the  title,  while  the  presence  of  a  powerless 

[269] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

governor  was  to  maintain  the  tradition  of  the  Porte's 
suzerainty. 

Soon,  however,  Mohammed  Ali  turned  against 
Bardisi;  his  Albanian  troops  demanded  arrears  of 
pay,  and  threatened  disturbances  unless  their  de- 
mands were  complied  with.  To  meet  them  Bardisi 
imposed  heavy  contributions  on  the  people  of  Cairo, 
which  only  aroused  general  indignation.  Finally, 
March  12,  1804,  Mohammed  Ali  with  his  troops  at- 
tacked Bardisi's  palace,  and  having  previously  won 
over  his  artillerymen  had  little  difficulty  in  driving 
him  out  of  Cairo,  when  he  was  followed  by  Ibrahim 
Bey,  who  appears  to  have  resumed  his  old  place  in 
the  government  of  the  city.  The  Cairenes  sum- 
moned Khurshid  Pasha,  Governor  of  Alexandria,  to 
undertake  the  government  of  Cairo,  and  he  had  a 
triumphal  entry.  He  proved  no  more  capable  of 
dealing  with  the  difficult  situation  than  those  who 
had  preceded  him,  but  saw  the  necessity  of  maintain- 
ing a  force  capable  of  counteracting  that  of  Mo- 
hammed Ali,  whose  Albanians  were  greatly  attached 
to  his  person,  and  to  that  end  obtained  a  regiment  of 
Moors,  whom  he  introduced  into  the  Citadel;  Mo- 
hammed Ali,  who  was  engaged  at  the  time  in  reduc- 
ing Upper  Egypt,  returned  to  Cairo  on  hearing  of 
this,  and  in  May,  1805,  received  the  appointment  of 
Governor  of  Jeddah  from  the  Porte.  Before  leav- 
ing for  Arabia,  his  Albanians  demanded  pay  from 
the  Pasha,  and  were  told  to  obtain  the  equivalent  by 
plundering.  Before  Mohammed  Ali  could  leave 
for  his  post,  if  indeed  he  ever  had  intended  to  do  so, 

[270] 


THE    KHEDIVIA   POLDERI 

a  deputation  came  to  him  from  the  leading  sheiks 
in  Cairo,  urging  him  to  undertake  the  government 
of  the  city,  and  to  depose  Khurshid  Pasha,  of  whose 
incompetence  and  arbitrary  methods  they  declared 
themselves  tired.  After  some  hesitation  Moham- 
med Ali  consented  to  accept  their  nomination,  and  a 
deputation  was  sent  to  Khurshid  Pasha,  informing 
him  of  his  deposition,  which  he,  as  the  representative 
of  the  Sultan,  refused  to  recognise,  since  only  the 
authority  by  whom  he  had  been  appointed  could 
cashier  him.  As  Khurshid  Pasha  did  not  hesitate  to 
bombard  the  town,  Mohammed  Ali  employed  the 
Mosque  of  the  Sultan  Hasan  as  a  counter  citadel,  a 
use  to  which  it  was  accustomed,  and  dragged  cannon 
up  Mount  Mokattam  so  as  to  command  the  Citadel 
from  behind  also.  Earnest  representations  had 
meanwhile  been  sent  to  Constantinople,  urging  the 
recall  of  Khurshid  and  the  appointment  of  Moham- 
med Ali  in  his  place ;  and  by  July  9  a  rescript  arrived 
from  the  Sultan,  confirming  the  action  of  the  sheiks, 
and  declaring  Khurshid  deposed.  A  Turkish  force 
was  also  sent  to  carry  out  these  orders  by  force,  should 
Khurshid  continue  to  resist.  Khurshid  presently 
saw  the  vanity  of  such  an  endeavour,  and  on  August 
3  Mohammed  Ali  entered  the  Citadel  as  governor  of 
Egypt  for  the  Porte. 

The  Mamelukes  had  played  an  important  part  in 
the  rise  of  Mohammed  Ali,  but  he  proved  to  be  a 
more  effective  enemy  to  them  than  either  the  Turks 
or  Bonaparte  had  been.  In  two  scenes  of  carnage  he 
caused  the  remains  of  them  to  disappear  from  the 

[271] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

face  of  Egypt.  In  August,  1805,  shortly  after  his 
official  appointment,  a  party  of  Mamelukes  were 
through  the  Pasha's  agents  induced  to  enter  Cairo  by 
the  Northern  Gate,  on  the  supposition  that  the  Pasha 
was  away,  seeing  to  the  opening  of  the  Nile  dams,  a 
ceremony  which  the  chief  authority  in  the  capital 
regularly  attended;  soldiers  had  been  put  in  ambus- 
cade in  the  houses  that  line  the  narrow  street  that  ends 
at  Bab  Zuwailah,  and  these  marksmen,  when  the 
Mameluke  cavalry  entered,  dealt  deadly  execution  on 
both  men  and  horses.  The  survivors  took  refuge  in 
the  School  of  the  Sultan  Barkuk,  in  the  Nahassin 
Street;  here  they  were  captured,  and  most  of  them 
afterwards  executed. 

The  second  massacre  took  place  in  February,  181 1, 
when  an  army  was  equipped  and  ready  to  start  for 
Arabia,  to  restore  the  authority  of  the  Porte,  and 
quell  the  Wahhabi  rebellion.  A  reception  was  given 
at  the  Citadel,  to  which  the  Mamelukes  were  invited 
in  numbers.  On  their  departure  they  were  attacked 
by  the  Albanian  troops  of  the  Viceroy,  in  the  avenue 
cut  in  the  solid  rock  which  leads  down  from  the  Cita- 
del, the  lower  gate  having  been  closed.  In  this  gorge 
460  are  said  to  have  perished,  and  orders  had  been 
issued  to  massacre  those  that  were  scattered  about  in 
Egypt.  The  event  was  followed  by  an  attempt  made 
by  the  soldiery  to  sack  Cairo  which  the  Pasha  had 
some  difficulty  in  repressing. 

To  understand  the  feeling  which  prompted  this 
measure  it  must  be  remembered  that  after  the  depar- 
ture of  the  French  one  of  the  Mameluke  leaders  had 

[272] 


THE   KHEDIVIA   POLDERI 

visited  England,  and  for  a  time,  while  French  in- 
fluence was  on  the  side  of  the  maintenance  of  Mo- 
hammed Ali,  English  influence  was  in  favour  of  the 
restoration  of  the  Mameluke  regime.  The  idea  of 
the  Pasha  was  then  to  annihilate  the  party  which  in 
the  event  of  disasters  in  Arabia  might  be  in  a  position 
again  to  bring  Egypt  into  disorder.  And  he  did 
annihilate  it.  The  Mamelukes  play  no  part  in  the 
politics  of  Egypt  since  1811.  The  widows  of  the 
slain  were  spared,  but  the  Pasha  claimed  the  right  to 
give  them  in  marriage  to  his  followers. 

In  the  whole  Mameluke  system  there  is  much  that 
is  obscure,  especially  in  the  phenomenon  that  these 
slave-rulers  required  constantly  to  be  refreshed  from 
outside,  the  offspring  of  the  Emirs  apparently  amal- 
gamating with  the  Moslem  population,  and  invari- 
ably taking  ordinary  Moslem  names.  It  was  a  late 
survival  in  history  of  the  old  beginning  of  kingship, 
where  a  man  slew  the  slayer,  and  should  himself  be 
slain;  for  if  this  does  not  always  literally  hold  good 
of  the  Mameluke  sovereigns,  yet  it  is  a  formula  which 
does  not  diverge  over  widely  from  the  truth.  Ali 
Bey  saw  that  the  system  must  be  struck  at,  but  was 
satisfied  with  preventive  measures  for  the  future; 
Mohammed  Ali  tore  out  the  system  by  the  roots. 

Not  quite  a  century  has  elapsed  since  that  event, 
and  Cairo  is  still  the  capital  of  Mohammed  All's 
dynasty,  and  has  expanded  to  greater  dimensions  than 
it  ever  reached  under  the  most  prosperous  of  its 
earlier  sovereigns. 

Mohammed  All's  career  has  been  repeatedly  nar- 

[273] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

rated,  and  we  have  no  room  even  to  sketch  it  here. 
Aided  by  his  able  son,  Ibrahim  Pasha,  he  subdued 
Arabia,  whereas  two  other  sons  extended  his 
dominions  by  conquests  in  the  region  of  the  Upper 
Nile.  Like  other  possessors  of  Egypt,  he  was 
anxious  to  hold  Syria  as  well;  and,  picking  a  quarrel 
with  the  Porte  when  that  power  had  been  weakened 
by  the  Greek  War  of  Independence,  he  sent  Ibrahim 
Pasha  northwards,  and  shortly  overran  Syria  and 
Asia  Minor,  and  was  in  a  position  to  threaten  Con- 
stantinople itself.  The  interference  of  Russia  pre- 
vented the  Egyptian  Pasha  dealing  with  the  Sultan  as 
the  Buyids  and  Seljuks  had  dealt  with  the  Caliph  of 
Baghdad;  but  for  some  six  years  Syria  was  an  Egyp- 
tian province.  The  discontent  of  the  Syrian  popula- 
tion then  gave  the  Porte  an  opportunity  to  attempt 
the  recovery  of  this  region,  only,  however,  to  sustain 
severe  losses  both  on  land  and  sea.  But  at  this  point 
the  European  concert  stepped  in.  Yet  it  was  not  be- 
fore Ibrahim  Pasha  had  been  defeated  by  European 
officers  that  the  pretensions  of  the  Pasha  of  Egypt 
were  moderated,  and  he  was  satisfied  with  the  he- 
reditary government  of  the  Valley  of  the  Nile.  In 
1841,  by  the  terms  of  peace  between  Mohammed  Ali 
on  the  one  side  and  the  Sultan  with  his  European 
allies  on  the  other,  the  government  of  Egypt  was 
vested  in  the  Pasha's  family,  though  the  title  Khedive 
was  not  conferred  on  the  ruler  till  some  time  later. 

Perhaps,  if  the  history  of  the  older  Eastern  con- 
querors were  better  recorded,  we  should  in  each  case 
understand  the  means  whereby  they  came  to  the  front 

[274] 


THE   KHEDIVIA   POLDERI 

and  defeated  their  rivals.  In  Mohammed  Ali's  case, 
the  secret  lay  in  his  determination  to  adopt  the  civili- 
sation of  Europe.  The  introduction  of  European 
drill  and  tactics  was  entirely  against  the  prejudices  of 
his  subjects,  and  at  first  led  to  a  plot  for  his  assassina- 
tion; the  conspiracy  was  revealed  in  time,  but  the  un- 
popularity of  his  measures  did  not  daunt  the  Pasha, 
and  he  even  allowed  the  objectors  to  go  unpunished. 
European,  and  especially  French,  officials  were  in- 
troduced to  train  troops,  cast  cannon  and  build  men- 
of-war;  but  the  military  inventions  of  the  West  were 
not  the  only  ones  adopted  by  the  Pasha,  who  imported 
education,  architecture  and  medical  appliances  from 
the  same  source.  Vast  schemes,  some  successful, 
others  destined  to  failure,  were  set  on  foot  with  the 
object  of  increasing  the  productiveness  of  Egypt  and 
even  rendering  it  a  manufacturing  country,  and  the 
internal  administration  both  of  town  and  country 
underwent  a  radical  change.  To  Mohammed  Ali, 
moreover,  is  due,  if  not  the  introduction  yet  the  en- 
forcement of  religious  toleration  on  an  ample  scale. 
Fanaticism,  whether  exercised  against  native  or 
foreign  Christians,  was  punished  by  him  with 
exemplary  promptitude;  and  the  attitude  of  mutual 
respect  and  consideration  adopted  by  the  various  reli- 
gious communities  of  Egypt,  which  is  a  pleasing  fea- 
ture to  any  visitor  of  that  country,  probably  dates 
from  Mohammed  Ali's  time,  though  the  brief  French 
occupation  may  have  contributed  towards  bringing  it 
about. 

In  Cairo  itself  Mohammed  Ali  introduced  the 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

first  specimens  of  European  architecture,  and  of 
course  the  capital  was  greatly  altered  during  his 
long  and  eventful  reign.  His  draining  of  the 
Ezbekiyyeh  Pool  has  already  been  noticed;  he  built 
himself  a  palace  at  Shubra  and  laid  out  the  long 
boulevard  that  connects  this  suburb  w^ith  the  capital, 
as  w^ell  as  another  connecting  Cairo  vs^ith  Boulak, 
where  a  substantial  new  stone  quay  was  erected  for 
river  steamers.  To  a  late  period  in  his  reign  belongs 
the  Rue  Neuve,  the  need  for  which  was  occasioned 
by  the  great  number  of  foreign  merchants  settled  in 
the  Mouski,  a  street  which  derives  its  name  from  a 
bridge  built  over  the  Great  Canal  by  one  Mouski,  a 
relation  of  the  great  Saladin,  who  died  in  the  year 
1 1 88.  The  Rue  Neuve  was  begun  in  the  year  1845, 
its  width  being  calculated  by  the  space  requirements 
of  two  loaded  camels  passing  each  other.  It  crosses 
at  right  angles  the  old  thoroughfare  which  originally 
bore  the  name  Between  the  Two  Palaces,  and,  doubt- 
less, in  the  course  of  its  construction  many  an  old 
landmark  was  obliterated. 

The  name  of  Mohammed  Ali  is  perpetuated  in 
Cairo  by  his  great  mosque,  erected  on  the  Citadel 
after  the  older  mosques  of  which  there  were  so  many 
at  different  times,  had  fallen  into  ruin  or  become  dis- 
used. The  Mosque  of  Nasir  still  remains  as  a  shell, 
but  of  the  others  few  but  archaeologists  know  the 
traces.  Mohammed  Ali's  building  is  in  imitation 
of  the  mosques  of  Constantinople,  for  all  which  the 
original  model  was  furnished  by  Saint  Sophia. 
Prince   Puckler  Muskau  visited   Cairo  when  this 

[  278  ] 


THE    KHEDIVIA    POLDERI 

mosque  was  in  course  of  erection,  and  speaks  of  it  in 
the  following  enthusiastic  strain: 

"  At  the  southern  extremity  of  the  Citadel  the  Vice- 
roy is  now  erecting  a  mosque,  just  opposite  to  the 
ruined  Saladin  [rather  Nasir]  Mosque,  which  in 
some  respects  will  be  the  most  superb  edifice  in  the 
world;  for  not  only  are  all  the  columns  made  of  mas- 
sive, polished  alabaster,  but  even  the  inner  and  outer 
walls  are  completely  covered  with  this  costly  ma- 
terial, which  has  hitherto  been  employed  only  in 
making  vases,  watchstands  and  little  knickknacks  of 
the  kind;  and  I  should  not  be  in  the  least  surprised 
if  the  entire  quarry  of  Sheik  Abadeh  were  to  be 
exhausted  in  the  creation  of  this  temple.  The  effect 
of  the  whole  is  quite  astonishing;  but  it  is  very  much 
apprehended  that  this  delicate  stone  will  not  be  able 
to  withstand  the  effects  of  the  climate." 

Most  European  visitors  are  much  more  restrained 
in  their  admiration  of  this  building,  and  regard  the 
taste  which  it  displays  as  vastly  inferior  to  that  ex- 
hibited in  the  mosques  of  the  Mameluke  period.  The 
following  is  a  translation  of  Ali  Pasha  Mubarak's 
description  of  it: 

"  This  Mosque  was  built  by  the  late  Hajj  [i.e., 
Pilgrim],  Mohammed  Ali  Pasha,  native  of  Cavalla, 
founder  of  the  Khedivial  family  in  Egypt.  He  be- 
gan its  erection  in  the  year  of  the  Hijrah,  1246  [1830- 
1831],  after  he  had  set  the  affairs  of  Egypt  in  order, 
and  terminated  those  operations  of  vast  utility  which 
we  have  sketched  in  the  introduction  to  this  book. 
He  selected  for  its  site  the  Citadel  of  Cairo,  in  order 

[279] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

that  the  benefits  of  public  worship  might  be  enjoyed 
by  the  employes  in  the  palaces  and  public  offices,  in- 
asmuch as  during  his  time  all  the  ministries  and  most 
of  the  offices  were  in  the  Citadel.  He  prepared  for 
its  erection  a  broad  area,  which  contained  the  re- 
mains of  edifices  that  had  been  erected  by  former 
sovereigns,  all  of  which  he  ordered  to  be  cleared 
away,  as  also  the  soil  till  he  came  to  the  solid  rock, 
on  which  he  ordered  the  foundations  to  be  laid.  He 
built  the  walls  of  enormous  stones,  some  three-and-a- 
half  metres  in  length;  iron  rods  connected  each  pair 
of  stones,  and  molten  lead  was  poured  in.  In  this 
style  the  foundations  were  laid  till  the  surface  of  the 
ground  was  reached.  The  mosque  was  modelled  on 
the  beautiful  Nur  Osmaniyyeh  Mosque  of  Constanti- 
nople, and  in  part  on  that  of  Sidi  Sariyah  on  the 
Citadel — an  unimportant  mosque  of  which  the  orig- 
inal appears  to  be  obscure.  The  building  of  the 
walls  was  continued  in  the  style  that  has  been 
described.  Four  doors  were  made,  two  to  the  north, 
one  admitting  to  the  court,  the  other  to  the  dome;  two 
also  were  placed  on  the  south  side.  The  stone  walls 
were  faced  with  alabaster  both  within  and  without  to 
their  full  height.  He  who  enters  from  the  gate  of 
the  Citadel  called  Bab  al-Daris  finds  a  wide  place  in 
which  he  is  confronted  by  the  doors  of  the  court  and 
the  dome.  The  door  leading  into  the  court  has  in- 
scribed over  it  in  marble  a  text  from  the  Koran  com- 
mending prayer.  The  letters  are  gilt.  The  threshold 
is  of  marble,  the  door  of  antique  wood ;  the  tympanum 
is  of  wood  also.     The  height  of  the  door  is  four 

[  280  ] 


THE    KHEDIVIA   POLDERI 

metres,  the  wooden  tympanum  is  one  metre  high. 
The  wall  is  two  metres  thick.  The  court  is  fifty- 
seven  metres  long  by  fifty-five  broad,  its  surface 
being  3135  square  metres.  It  embraces  five  liwans, 
surmounted  by  forty-seven  domes,  mounted  on 
marble  pillars,  eight  metres  high,  exclusive  of  the 
base.  The  number  of  these  pillars  which  surround 
the  court  and  support  the  domes  is  forty-five.  Each 
has  a  necking  and  torus  of  brass,  and  each  column  is 
connected  with  every  other  by  an  iron  bar;  the  num- 
ber of  these  bars  amounts  to  ninety-four.  To  each 
dome  there  is  appended  a  brass  chain,  to  which  a 
lamp  is  attached.  On  the  left  side  as  one  enters  from 
this  door  is  the  door  of  the  minaret,  of  ordinary  wood ; 
265  steps  lead  to  the  summit,  exclusive  of  those  which 
lead  up  to  the  iron  obelisk  which  crowns  it.  On  the 
left  side  in  the  middle,  between  the  two  liwans  is  the 
door  which  leads  from  the  court  into  the  dome;  it 
is  of  folding  doors  of  antique  wood,  as  also  is  the 
semicircular  tympanum;  over  it  the  date  is  written 
in  Turkish.  Some  seven  years  before  the  liwan, 
which  comes  after  the  door  of  the  dome,  is  the  door 
which  leads  to  the  second  minaret,  ascended  by  the 
same  number  of  steps  as  the  last;  they  form  winding 
staircases  with  bronze  balustrades.  The  height  of 
each  of  these  minarets  is  eighty-four  metres  from  the 
ground,  of  which  twenty-five  and  two-thirds  are  from 
the  ground  to  the  roof  of  the  mosque.  On  the  same 
left  hand  side  are  nine  windows  belonging  to  the 
dome,  each  of  which  contains  a  text  from  the  Surah 
called  Fath,  engraved  in  marble  and  filled  in  with 

[281] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

gold.  Over  the  door  of  the  dome  there  is  written 
a  text  promising  Believers  Paradise;  doubtless  this 
promise  has  been  realised  in  the  founder's  case.  In 
the  middle  of  the  court  there  is  a  wooden  dome 
mounted  on  eight  marble  columns,  seven  metres  high, 
underneath  which  there  is  a  fountain  with  an  ala- 
baster cupola,  and  sixteen  spouts,  with  a  marble 
spout  over  each,  containing  the  text  of  the  Koran 
which  enjoins  washing  before  prayer,  and  the  tradi- 
tion, *  Washing  is  the  Believer's  Weapon.'  In  front 
of  each  spout  there  is  a  marble  base.  Between  each 
pair  of  pillars  there  is  an  iron  rod,  holding  a  brass 
chain  for  a  lamp,  while  over  each  is  a  crescent  of 
bronze.  Close  by  is  the  entrance  to  the  cistern 
which  is  underneath  the  court;  the  coping  is  of  ala- 
baster, and  the  lid  of  brass.  There  is  a  pump  there 
also  for  raising  the  water. 

^'  The  southern  gate  of  the  court  resembles  the 
northern,  which  it  faces,  and  there  is  engraved  above 
it  in  marble  the  text,  ^  Your  Lord  hath  prescribed 
unto  Himself  mercy.'  In  the  liwans  which  sur- 
round the  court  there  are  thirty-eight  windows,  each 
two-and-a-half  metres  in  length,  and  one-and-a-half 
in  breadth;  the  thickness  of  the  wall  is  two  metres. 
It  contains  a  window  in  bronze.  In  front  of  the 
north  door,  which  gives  entrance  to  the  dome,  there 
is  a  gallery  on  twenty-four  alabaster  columns,  with 
bronze  neckings  and  tori,  each  eight  metres  high,  not 
including  the  base.  The  pillars  are  connected  by 
twenty-two  iron  bars,  and  surmounted  by  eleven 
domes  with  bronze  crescents.     Hence  you  proceed 

[282] 


THE    KHEDIVIA    POLDERI 

into  the  sanctuary,  which  is  almost  square,  forty-six 
metres  by  forty-five,  exclusive  of  the  liwan  on  the 
kiblah  side,  which  is  seventeen  metres  by  nine,  with 
an  area  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  metres.  In 
it  there  is  a  very  lofty  dome,  some  sixty-one  metres 
above  the  floor  of  the  Mosque,  mounted  on  four  piers 
of  hewn  stone,  faced  with  marble  to  a  height  of  two 
metres.  The  dome  has  four  semicircles,  one  on 
each  side,  and  four  small  domes.  The  whole  of  the 
great  dome  is  elaborately  painted,  and  decorated 
with  gold-leaf.  There  are  circles  painted  round  it, 
with  certain  pious  formulae  inscribed  in  gold-leaf. 
To  the  left  of  the  sanctuary  you  find  the  Mihrab, 
with  a  semicircular  roofing,  while  the  niche  itself  is 
in  marble  with  an  inscription  in  coloured  glass.  The 
niche  is  enclosed  by  two  small  marble  columns,  with 
brass  necking  and  torus.  To  the  left,  close  to  one  of 
the  piers  that  have  been  mentioned,  is  the  reader's 
chair  made  of  wood,  with  a  balustrade  of  the  same 
material  turned.  Five  steps  lead  up  to  it,  and  it  is 
carpeted  with  red  cloth.  To  the  right  is  the  pulpit 
of  wood,  decorated  with  gold-leaf,  reached  by  twen- 
ty-five steps,  also  carpeted  with  red  cloth  and  with 
folding  doors.  Above  in  a  circle  there  is  inscribed 
the  text,  '  Friday  is  with  God  the  best  of  days.' 
Above  the  preacher's  seat  is  a  tall  dome  on  four 
wooden  columns,  with  a  Koranic  text  written  round 
it.  At  the  bottom  of  the  pulpit  there  is  a  guichet  on 
each  side,  inscribed  with  texts;  between  them  there 
is  a  sort  of  cupboard  to  which  access  is  given  by  a 
door  under  the  pulpit.     Opposite  the  Mihrab  is  the 

[283] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

door  of  the  dome  leading  out  of  the  court,  sur- 
mounted by  a  bench  for  the  Mueddins,  extending  the 
whole  breadth  of  the  sanctuary,  and  mounted  on 
eight  marble  pillars,  eight  metres  high,  surrounded 
by  a  bronze  balustrade,  which  also  surrounds  the 
upper  part  of  the  sanctuary,  this  upper  part  contain- 
ing thirty-one  brass  windows,  with  lights  of  white 
glass.  At  a  distance  of  about  twelve  metres  there  is 
another  balustrade,  facing  thirty-one  more  windows, 
this  time  of  stained  glass.  Between  (?)  the  two 
there  are  the  twenty-four  windows  of  the  great  dome, 
with  a  brass  balustrade,  the  windows  being  of  bronze 
work  with  stained  glass  lights,  and  the  balustrade  at 
the  top  of  the  dome  has  in  front  of  it  forty  stained 
glass  windows.  Round  each  of  the  four  domes  men- 
tioned above  there  are  ten  windows  with  balustrade. 
The  purpose  of  these  balustrades  is  to  support  lamps. 
In  the  semicircle  of  the  Mihrab  there  are  sixteen 
windows,  with  a  gallery  containing  a  balustrade  in 
front,  and  round  the  wall  low  down  there  are  thirty- 
six  windows  each  two-and-a-half  metres  long,  with 
white  glass  lights,  each  one  containing  a  portion  of 
the  poem  called  '  Burdah.'  Access  is  given  to  the 
galleries  from  the  two  minarets  and  the  roof  of  the 
Mosque.  The  southern  door  of  the  dome,  which 
faces  the  northern,  has  written  on  the  outside  '  God's 
are  the  places  of  worship,  and  invoke  no  one  with 
God.'  In  front  is  a  vast  gallery,  on  eleven  columns 
of  alabaster,  some  eight  metres  high.  Twenty-two 
iron  bars  connect  these  pillars,  which  are  surmounted 
by  eleven  domes,  similar  to  those  in  the  gallery  facing 

[284] 


SOUK   SELAL,    1  111:   ARMOURERS'    BAZAAR.  CAIRO. 


THE    KHEDIVIA   POLDERI 

the  first  door.  The  tomb  of  the  founder,  which  he 
ordered  to  be  hewn  for  himself  in  the  solid  rock,  is 
in  the  southwest  corner  to  the  right  as  one  enters  from 
the  door  leading  from  the  court  into  the  dome.  The 
completion  of  the  Mosque  in  this  style  was  in  the 
year  1261  [1845].  The  founder  died  three  years 
later,  and  was  followed  by  Ibrahim  his  son,  who  died 
shortly  after.  He  was  succeeded  by  Abbas  Pasha, 
son  of  Tusun,  who  ordered  the  Mosque  to  be  finished. 
They  whitewashed  the  piers,  and  then  painted  them 
to  look  like  marble,  paved  the  floor,  and  painted  and 
inscribed  the  domes." 

One  other  monument  in  Cairo  which  preserves  the 
name  of  Mohammed  Ali,  the  Boulevard  called  after 
him,  belongs  to  the  reign  of  Isma'il  Pasha,  who  gov- 
erned Egypt  from  1863  ^^  1882.  Its  site  was  a  series 
of  graveyards,  which  continued  in  use  till  Mo- 
hammed All's  time.  The  bones  were  collected  when 
the  Boulevard  was  cut,  and  distributed  in  various 
places;  over  the  spot  where  many  of  them  were  laid 
a  mosque  called  the  Bone  Mosque  was  built.  The 
plans  were  drawn  in  1873.  M.  Rhone,  who  is  no 
friend  to  the  renovation  of  Cairo,  gives  the  following 
description  of  the  process  by  which  the  Boulevard 
was  made:  "  Like  a  shot  fired  too  soon,  it  started  one 
fine  day  from  the  Ezbekiyyeh,  without  knowing 
whither  it  was  going,  and  alighted  at  a  distance  of 
two  kilometres  from  its  starting-point,  at  the  for- 
midable angle  of  the  mosque  of  the  Sultan  Hasan, 
which  it  could  not  help  encountering.  On  its  way 
it   had    displaced    a   whole   hillful   of    houses    and 

[287] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND  DAMASCUS 

mosques;  halfway,  on  the  canal,  it  let  fall  its  burden 
of  debris,  and  this  gave  birth  to  the  palace  of  Mansur 
Pasha."  Ali  Pasha,  who  took  part  in  the  under- 
taking, naturally  speaks  in  a  different  style  of  this 
great  artery,  which  he  holds  to  have  benefited  Cairo 
enormously,  among  other  services  purifying  the  air. 
But  the  amount  of  displacing  done  was  enormous; 
398  buildings  had  to  be  removed  to  make  room  for 
the  Boulevard;  of  these  325  were  dwellings,  some 
large  and  some  small;  the  rest  were  baths,  bake- 
houses, etc.,  besides  religious  buildings.  We  have 
already  seen  that  the  Mosque  of  Kausun  suffered 
severely,  though  it  must  be  added  that  Mehren,  who 
made  his  list  of  religious  monuments  of  Cairo  before 
the  construction  of  the  Boulevard  found  this  mosque 
in  a  ruinous  condition;  another  sanctuary  that  suf- 
fered was  that  of  the  Sheik  Nu'man,  dating  from 
the  year  1575. 

Isma'il  Pasha  is  the  founder  of  modern  Cairo,  of 
which  the  centre  is  the  Place  Atabah  al-Khadra,  or 
the  Green  Threshold,  supposed  to  be  called  after  a 
palace  with  that  name  which  formerly  existed  there, 
and  was  the  abode  of  one  Mohammed  al-Shara'ibi, 
who  lived  in  the  twelfth  Mohammedan  century. 
From  it  there  radiate  streets  or  boulevards  in  all 
directions;  Mouski  leads  eastwards  to  the  old  parts 
of  the  city,  crossing  where  was  once  the  Grand  Canal 
to  what  remains  of  the  work  of  the  Fatimides ;  west- 
wards a  number  of  avenues  lead  to  the  quarter  called 
after  Isma'il,  the  abode  of  the  English  and  the 
wealthy.    When  new  streets  are  built,  an  attempt  is 

[288] 


THE   KHEDIVIA   POLDERI 

made  to  preserve  some  history  in  their  names;  few, 
such  as  the  Boulevard  Clot  Bey,  are  called  after  quite 
modern  personages;  in  most  cases  they  preserve  the 
memory  of  either  an  ancient  quarter,  or  some  build- 
ing that  once  stood  near  their  sites.  The  committee, 
to  whose  w^ork  allusion  has  so  often  been  made,  acting 
on  expert  opinion,  sees  that  no  ancient  work  is  de- 
stroyed which  has  either  historical  or  artistic  interest. 
Europe  has  taught  the  East  to  pay  reverence  to  its 
ancient  monuments. 

If  Cairo  should  ever  indulge  in  the  taste  for  his- 
torical pageants  which  is  so  characteristic  of  our 
country  at  this  time,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  find 
a  number  of  scenes  worth  reproducing,  some  of  them 
graced  with  figures  that  loom  large  in  the  vista  of 
the  centuries.  Ahmad  Ibn  Tulun's  architect  sum- 
moned from  his  prison  to  solve  the  problem  of  the 
mosque;  Jauhar  drawing  the  lines  of  his  city  at  an 
auspicious  moment;  Saladin  rejecting  the  splen- 
dours of  the  Fatimide  Palace;  Shajar  al-durr  receiv- 
ing the  homage  of  the  Emirs  behind  her  curtain; 
Baibars  receiving  his  investiture  from  the  Caliph 
of  his  own  appointment;  Kala'un's  Hospital  in- 
augurated by  a  disloyal  preacher;  Cairo  decorated  to 
celebrate  the  fall  of  Constantinople,  and  presently 
itself  entered  in  triumph  by  the  Ottoman  Sultan;  al- 
Azhar,  stormed  by  Bonaparte's  soldiers;  the  Mame- 
lukes surrendering  to  Mohammed  Ali  in  the  Barkuk 
Mosque — these  might  be  suggested  as  a  character- 
istic and  not  wholly  uninteresting  selection.  And  if 
scenes   from  yet  later  times  were  included,   there 

[289] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

might  be  a  few  in  which  great  Englishmen  figured 
also:  Baker,  sent  by  Isma'il  Pasha  to  suppress  the 
slave-trade  in  the  Soudan;  Gordon,  hastening  to  his 
heroic  defence  of  Khartoum;  and  last,  but  not  least, 
the  farewell  address  of  the  statesman  to  whom  the 
present  financial  and  administrative  prosperity  of 
Cairo  is  due. 


[290] 


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,^f 


JERUSALEM:    AN    HISTORICAL    SKETCH 

CHE  situation  of  Jerusalem  is  majestic  and 
impressive.  It  lies  on  four  hills,  which 
some  with  a  taste  for  sacred  numbers  have 
wished  to  increase  to  seven ;  on  three  sides 
Heep  valleys  encircle  it.  Both  those  that  separate  the 
hills  and  those  that  surround  them  were  at  an  earlier 
period  far  deeper  than  they  are  now,  since  excavators 
have  found  accumulations  of  rubbish  about  them, 
varying  in  depth  from  forty  to  over  a  hundred  feet; 
one  of  the  hills  was,  it  is  said,  deliberately  lowered  as 
a  military  precaution,  and  one  of  the  internal  depres- 
sions artificially  filled  up.  Before  these  operations 
of  art  and  nature  were  accomplished,  the  features 
which  excite  our  admiration  now  must  have  been 
greatly  accentuated.  And  those  have  taught  us  most 
about  the  ancient  topography  of  the  city  who  have 
driven  shafts  and  tunnels  through  these  accumu- 
lations, and  mapped  out  underground  Jerusalem. 
Their  work  constituted  a  record  in  excavation,  and 
some  of  their  names  are  dear  to  the  British  nation 
on  quite  other  than  archaeological  grounds.  If  they 
have  left  many  a  controversy  undetermined,  it  is  be- 

[293] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

cause  inscriptions,  the  surest  indications  of  ancient 
sites,  have  rarely  been  discovered,  and  still  more 
rarely  on  the  places  v^^here  they  originally  stood;  be- 
cause the  place  has  been  often  taken  by  relentless 
enemies,  determined  if  possible  to  leave  no  stone 
upon  another;  and  because  ancient  descriptions  of  it 
are  often  either  ideal  descriptions,  or  made  by  per- 
sons who  wrote  at  a  distance  from  the  scenes  which 
they  described,  and  were  perhaps  unskilled  in  accu- 
rate observation  and  the  technicalities  of  archi- 
tecture. 

The  nature  of  the  soil  has  determined  the  area  of 
the  city,  but  except  for  its  brief  period  of  glory,  to 
which  allusion  will  presently  be  made,  there  was  no 
reason  why  it  should  ever  have  to  harbour  a  great 
population.  Since  the  building  of  the  second  Tem- 
ple it  has  been  far  more  a  religious  than  a  politi- 
cal centre;  and  even  as  such  it  has  never  been  able 
to  occupy  quite  the  first  rank.  With  Islam  it  was 
only  occasionally  and  under  special  circumstances 
able  to  rival  Meccah;  with  the  more  powerful  por- 
tion of  Christianity  it  was  superseded  by  Rome. 
Probably  the  more  energetic  and  capable  of  the 
Israelites  have  regularly  preferred  to  be  its  occa- 
sional visitors  than  to  constitute  part  of  its  perma- 
nent population.  The  class  whom  such  a  place  at- 
tracts consists  of  persons  worn  out  with  worldly 
things,  and  interested  only  in  spiritual  concerns, 
while  the  expectation  of  a  golden  stream  from  out- 
side discourages  in  the  natives  the  original  effort  and 
the    growth  of    those  sterling  qualities    which    the 

[294] 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

struggle  for  existence  ordinarily  produces.  Con- 
stantly recruited  from  without,  it  produces  little  or 
nothing  from  within.  Thus  for  an  indigenous  art  or 
architecture  in  Jerusalem  no  one  looks;  the  explorer 
searches  only  for  relics  of  the  styles  imported  at  dif- 
ferent periods  sometimes  by  domestic  rulers,  more 
often  by  donors  and  benefactors.  The  Solomonic 
Temple  was  in  Phoenician  style,  the  Temple  of 
Nehemiah  probably  Persian;  for  later  buildings  the 
models  were  furnished  by  Greece,  Rome  and  Byzan- 
tium, after  which  came  Norman  and  Gothic  impor- 
tations from  Europe;  to-day  the  patterns  in  fashion 
in  every  European  state  of  consequence  are  repre- 
sented. Should  a  new  Jewish  Temple  be  built  on 
the  Haram  area,  it  would  probably  be  from  French 
or  Italian  designs. 

The  period  during  which  the  city  could  claim  the 
title  imperial  was  very  short,  extending  no  longer 
than  the  reigns  of  David  and  Solomon,  the  former 
of  whom  appears  to  have  brought  several  of  the  sur- 
rounding peoples  into  subjection.  This  is  the  view 
which  we  take,  if  we  approach  the  Old  Testament 
record  without  too  great  scepticism.  With  the  name 
of  the  first  of  these  two  sovereigns  the  city  has  been 
in  historic  times  connected,  although  there  is  a  great 
doubt  as  to  the  part  of  it  which  he  occupied;  the 
operations  executed  by  him  with  the  view  of  making 
the  place  a  metropolis  are  too  briefly  stated  to  permit 
of  much  being  elicited.  The  name  appears  to  go 
back  to  a  much  earlier  period  than  that  of  David, 
who  is  said  to  have  found  the  city,  or  part  of  it,  in 

[295] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

possession  of  a  tribe  called  Jebus,  after  whom  it  was 
then  called ;  members  of  the  tribe  occasionally  meet 
us  after  David's  seizure  of  their  stronghold.  Their 
fortress  is  usually  supposed  to  have  occupied  one  of 
the  hills  only,  with  which  the  founder  of  Israelitish 
Jerusalem  incorporated  others,  enclosing  the  whole 
with  a  wall.  Such  dwellings  as  already  existed 
would  then  be  allotted  to  those  who  helped  to  storm 
the  fortress,  and  permission  given  for  others  to  build. 
The  speed  with  which  the  residence  of  a  victorious 
prince  attracts  inhabitants  is  extraordinary,  and  Jeru- 
salem was  doubtless  a  populous  city  before  his  reign 
ended.  That  no  sanctuary  was  erected  by  him  to 
the  national  Deity  seems  certain,  and  the  fact  re- 
quired explanation  at  an  early  time;  that  in  which 
the  later  Jews  acquiesced  was  that  he  was  disquali- 
fied for  erecting  a  sanctuary  by  the  blood  which  he 
had  shed,  but  the  earlier  explanation  may  have  been 
different. 

The  only  monument  in  the  city's  neighbourhood 
which  may  be  actually  connected  with  David  is  the 
King's  tomb  outside  the  Sion  Gate.  The  exact  spot 
where  David  was  buried  is  not  mentioned  in  his 
biography,  but  his  tomb  is  employed  as  a  landmark 
by  Nehemiah,  and  is  mentioned  repeatedly  by  Jose- 
phus,  who  declares  that  the  King  had  much  treasure 
deposited  with  him,  which  in  the  centuries  just  pre- 
ceding the  Christian  Era  was  despoiled  by  Hyrcanus 
and  Herod.  In  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  also  the 
tomb  of  David  is  mentioned  as  a  well-known  object 
in    Jerusalem.     A  Christian  tradition  identifies    a 

[296] 


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1 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

room  in  the  buildings  surrounding  the  tomb  as  the 
Upper  Chamber  where  the  Eucharist  was  instituted 
and  where  the  miracle  of  Pentecost  was  wrought. 
The  room  is  said  by  Epiphanius  to  have  remained 
undestroyed  when  the  city  was  burned  by  Titus,  and 
to  have  afterwards  been  used  as  a  church.  A  con- 
vent for  the  Franciscans  was  here  erected  in  the  four- 
teenth century  by  Sancia,  Queen  of  Robert  of  Sicily, 
which  was  taken  from  them  by  the  Moslems  in  1560, 
it  is  said,  owing  to  the  vengeance  of  a  Jew,  who  had 
desired  to  perform  his  devotions  at  the  tombs  of 
David  and  Solomon  underneath  the  convent,  and 
had  been  refused  permission  by  the  Franciscans,  and 
who  then  persuaded  the  Grand  Vizier  at  Constan- 
tinople to  take  the  tombs  of  the  two  Kings,  whom 
the  Koran  calls  Prophets,  out  of  the  hands  of  unbe- 
lievers. A  few  favoured  travellers  have  had  access 
to  the  tombs  themselves,  which  appear  to  have  been 
discovered  in  the  time  of  Benjamin  of  Tudela,  when 
stones  were  taken  from  the  wall  of  Mount  Sion  to 
repair  the  church.  The  story  of  their  discovery  is 
not  free  from  fabulous  elements,  but  some  monu- 
ments of  artistic  excellence  appear  to  exist  on  the 
spot.  The  question  to  whom  they  belong  has  not 
been  definitely  solved,  and  even  in  Nehemiah's  time 
the  traditional  site  may  not  necessarily  have  been 
the  real  one. 

Solomon's  character,  like  that  of  David,  is  a  fa- 
miliar one  to  readers  of  Oriental  history.  While 
the  father  was  the  enterprising  and  astute  empire- 
builder,  the  son  was  the  magnificent  patron  of  the 

[299] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

arts,  of  literature,  and  of  commerce.  Under  him  the 
metropolis  began  to  be  adorned  with  edifices  worthy 
of  the  sovereign's  power  and  wealth,  and  foreign 
artificers  were  summoned  to  erect  them,  the  Phoeni- 
cians at  this  time  occupying  the  place  which  at  a 
later  period  belonged  to  Greeks,  and  after  them  to 
nations  yet  further  west.  Of  the  building  of  the 
Temple,  the  sacred  writers  have  preserved  a  most 
elaborate  account;  and  though  there  is  some  contro- 
versy as  to  the  part  of  the  Haram  area  which  it  occu- 
pied, there  appears  to  be  general  agreement  as  to  the 
practical  correctness  of  the  traditional  site.  The 
breaches  in  the  continuity  of  the  tradition  are  not  in- 
deed considerable;  perhaps  the  most  considerable 
being  that  between  the  times  of  Jeremiah  and  Nehe- 
miah,  though  Moslem  writers  make  it  appear  that 
when  the  Mohammedan  conqueror  wished  to  be 
directed  to  the  site  of  the  Temple,  wrong  directions 
were  given  him  at  first,  apparently  through  igno- 
rance. The  probability  is  that  none  of  the  vicissi- 
tudes through  which  Jerusalem  passed  left  the  coun- 
try quite  without  inhabitants  familiar  with  so  notable 
a  site.  Besides  the  Temple,  the  King's  own  domestic 
arrangements  required  the  erection  of  several  pal- 
aces, and  probably  of  numerous  shrines  for  the  hous- 
ing of  the  deities  worshipped  by  the  different  nation- 
alities represented  in  his  household. 

Of  these  palaces  and  sanctuaries  the  Bible  pre- 
serves some  names  and  some  architectural  details; 
but  of  the  general  appearance  of  the  city  in  Solo- 
mon's time  it  is  not  possible  to  gather  any  distinct 

[300] 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

impression.  The  material  used  by  him  appears  to 
have  been  perishable  in  the  extreme,  and  it  is  un- 
likely that  any  work  executed  by  him  still  remains. 
Owing,  however,  to  the  memories  of  Solomon's  wis- 
dom and  magnificence,  legend  attributes  to  him  all 
anonymous  works  on  a  great  scale  that  are  to  be 
found  either  in  the  city  or  in  its  neighbourhood. 
The  theory  that  Solomon  had  supernatural  agencies 
under  his  control  enabling  him  to  carry  out  the  vast- 
est designs  can  be  traced  back  to  the  time  of  Josephus, 
and  through  the  influence  of  the  Koran  has  become 
an  article  of  faith  with  Moslems.  The  Biblical  ac- 
count of  his  methods  shows  that  no  supernatural 
agents  were  requisite.  The  whole  wealth  of  a  small 
country,  and  unlimited  labour,  such  as  lay  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  Sultan  of  the  time,  would  easily  account 
for  the  execution  of  any  of  the  works  attributed  to 
him.  No  contemporary  traveller  tells  us  what  Jeru- 
salem looked  like  in  his  day,  for  the  memoirs  of  the 
Queen  of  Saba,  if  she  left  any,  have  not  come  down. 
Probably  it  was  largely  a  collection  of  wooden  huts. 
These  form  an  intermediate  stage  between  the  dwell- 
ings of  the  nomad  and  the  town  resident;  and  the 
cry,  "  To  your  tents,  O  Israel  "  had  not  ceased  to  be 
heard  in  Solomon's  time.  The  palaces  differed 
from  the  other  houses  in  the  quality,  but  not  in  the 
nature  of  the  material  of  which  they  were  mainly 
constructed. 

The  magnificent  monarch  often  leaves  on  the  mind 
of  his  subjects  not  so  much  pride  in  his  grandeur  as 
resentment    at  the  extortions  which  have  been    the 

[301] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

source  of  his  magnificence,  and  with  all  but  Solo- 
mon's own  tribe  and  one  other  the  latter  appears  to 
have  been  the  sentiment  which  dominated.  The  un- 
popularity which  has  attached  to  the  tribe  of  Judah 
ever  since  it  became  known  to  the  general  world, 
seems  to  have  belonged  to  it  in  its  relations  with  the 
other  tribes  constituting  Israel,  and  so  soon  as  Solo- 
mon was  dead,  they  hastened  to  throw  off  a  yoke, 
which  indeed  the  King's  taste  for  building  by  forced 
labour  had  rendered  exceptionally  severe.  Other 
sanctuaries  became  more  popular  with  the  northern 
kingdom,  which  was  far  more  populous  and  power- 
ful than  the  small  remnant  which  remained  loyal  to 
the  family  of  David.  That  loyalty,  however,  ap- 
pears to  have  been  a  deep-rooted  sentiment,  and  to 
have  kept  the  southern  kingdom  tolerably  free  from 
the  scramble  for  the  sovereignty  which  disturbed  and 
finally  wrecked  the  northern.  The  record  which  we 
have  of  both  is  exceedingly  imperfect,  and  in  the 
matter  of  building  we  hear  chiefly  of  repairs  done 
to  the  wall  of  Jerusalem,  of  the  occasional  erection 
of  towers,  and  of  provisions  made  for  a  better  water 
supply.  The  only  inscription  in  Jerusalem  which  is 
from  the  period  of  the  kings  is  that  which  records 
the  construction  of  an  aqueduct  in  the  time  of  King 
Hezekiah.  This  aqueduct,  which  took  the  form  of 
a  tunnel,  appears  to  have  been  commenced  at  both 
ends  at  once,  a  fact  which  implies  the  existence  of 
greater  engineering  skill,  and  instruments  of  greater 
precision,  than  we  should  ordinarily  suppose  to  have 
been  possessed  by  the  Jews. 

[302] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

The  condition  of  Jerusalem  during  the  period  of 
the  divided  kingdom,  as  the  Book  of  Kings  records 
it,  was  by  no  means  one  of  quiet  development;  it  was, 
on  the  contrary,  one  of  perpetual  disturbance,  in 
which  city  and  Temple  were  repeatedly  sacked, 
varied  at  times  by  spells  of  peace  and  prosperity 
under  some  competent  ruler.  The  maintenance  of 
the  Temple  was,  it  would  seem,  during  the  whole 
time,  the  chief  function  of  the  King,  and  according 
to  the  influences  to  which  different  kings  were  sub- 
ject many  innovations  were  introduced,  both  in  the 
structure  of  the  sanctuary  and  in  the  form  of  ritual. 
The  unfriendly  attitude  adopted  by  the  Jewish 
religion  towards  all  others  appears  at  least  in  prac- 
tice to  date  from  the  last  century  of  the  monarchy; 
previously  Jerusalem  contained  sanctuaries  dedicated 
to  objects  of  worship  other  than  the  God  of  Israel, 
and  the  Temple  itself  at  times  harboured  altars  of 
more  than  one  Deity.  The  record  which  has  come 
down  to  us  of  Jewish  history  is  written  in  the  spirit 
of  Deuteronomy,  and  is  too  deeply  hostile  to  pagan 
cults  to  take  any  interest  in  the  monuments  erected 
for  their  celebration;  while,  therefore,  we  hear  occa- 
sionally of  the  names  of  deities  to  whom  shrines  were 
dedicated  in  Jerusalem,  it  is  chiefly  when  the  his- 
torian rejoices  over  their  destruction;  neither  has  he 
any  more  sympathy  with  sanctuaries  intended  for  the 
God  of  Israel,  but  outside  the  Temple  area.  We 
therefore  conjecture  rather  than  know  for  certain 
that  Jerusalem,  in  its  best  days,  presented  an  appear- 
ance not  unlike  what  it  exhibits  to-day,  where  with 

[304] 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

one  pre-eminent  mosque  representing  the  dominant 
cult,  there  is  associated  a  variety  of  other  mosques, 
churches  and  synagogues,  the  latter  belonging,  to  a 
large  extent,  to  strangers,  though  in  part  to  natives; 
the  notion  that  the  sanctity  of  the  chief  edifice  is 
impugned  by  the  presence  of  these  other  places  of 
worship  has  now  been  outgrown,  though  even  before 
the  Deuteronomic  reform  it  had  no  wide  currency. 

The  mode  whereby  that  reform  was  introduced 
has  been  made  out,  so  far  as  the  nature  of  the  evi- 
dence admits  of  positive  conclusions,  by  those  who 
have  written  on  the  history  of  Israelitish  religion, 
and  we  know  that  when  Judaism  was  once  started 
on  the  doctrine  of  one  God,  one  Temple,  it  drew 
the  inferences  with  ever-increasing  rigour.  Prob- 
ably those  are  right  who  trace  the  origin  of  the 
process  to  the  deliverance  of  Jerusalem  from  Sen- 
nacherib, when  the  northern  Kingdom  had  been 
swept  away  by  Assyria.  If,  as  the  history  suggests, 
there  were  strong  reasons  why  the  sect,  whose  motto 
was  the  doctrine  stated,  could  claim  the  miracle  as 
one  granted  specially  to  their  cause,  their  ability  to 
monopolise  Judaism  and  in  time  Jerusalem  seems 
to  be  explained.  That  effect  was  not  attained  with- 
out violent  reactions,  in  the  course  of  which  Jerusa- 
lem itself  perished,  for  the  miracle  was  not  renewed, 
and  the  violent  religious  persecutions  which  fol- 
lowed the  reign  of  Hezekiah  must  have  greatly  re- 
duced such  power  of  resistance  as  the  Jewish  people 
might  have  been  able  to  bring  against  the  tremen- 
dous power  of  Babylon.     Belief,  however,  in  the 

[305] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

sanctity  of  the  spot  where  alone  a  temple  might  stand 
and  sacrifice  could  be  offered  was  harboured  as  a 
precious  heirloom  by  the  descendants  of  those  who 
had  been  forcibly  ejected  from  the  sacred  city.  The 
conviction  that  it  would  eventually  arise  from  its 
ruins,  no  more  to  be  polluted  by  alien  worships,  gave 
it  for  a  time  an  ideal  existence,  and  enthusiasts  de- 
voted their  energies  to  planning  how  it  should  be 
laid  out. 

The  time  which  elapsed  before  such  operations 
could  be  executed  seems  to  have  been  very  lengthy. 
It  is  not  now  thought  probable  that  there  was  a  Jeru- 
salem between  that  of  David  and  that  of  Nehemiah; 
if  there  was  it  must  have  been  a  place  of  small  im- 
portance, for  the  inquisitive  Herodotus,  who  com- 
posed his  inquiry  in  the  fifth  century  B.C.^  had  heard 
of  Palestine  but  appears  not  to  have  heard  of  Jeru- 
salem. Josephus  answers  that  he  had  also  not  heard 
of  Rome,  a  reply  which  seems  unsatisfactory.  A  re- 
turn from  exile  in  the  form  of  a  splendid  pageant, 
such  as  some  of  the  Prophets  awaited,  did  not  take 
place;  but  early  in  the  fourth  century,  B.C.^  one 
Nehemiah,  who  had  won  promotion  at  the  Persian 
court,  then  in  possession  of  the  East,  obtained  leave 
to  rebuild  city  and  temple  on  a  modest  scale.  The 
restored  Jerusalem  appears  to  date  from  his  efforts, 
but  the  combination  of  his  authentic  narrative  with 
another  of  unknown  date  and  authority  has  rendered 
the  process  of  restoration  hard  to  follow.  The  un- 
friendly attitude  adopted  towards  their  neighbours 
by   the    Israelites  seems  to  have   involved    the    re- 

[306] 


JERUSALEM:  AN   HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

builders  of  Jerusalem  in  difficulties,  but  there  is  no 
doubt  that  through  the  work  of  Nehemiah  it  was 
raised  to  the  rank  of  something  like  a  provincial  cap- 
ital, and  this  rank  it  retained  when  before  the  close  of 
the  fourth  century  Persian  domination  gave  way  to 
Greek. 

For  the  gap  which  separates  the  termination  of  the 
Old  Testament  from  the  Maccabaean  period  even 
Josephus  appears  to  have  had  only  historical  ro- 
mances to  guide  him,  but  in  the  restored  city,  pre- 
vented by  the  suzerain  power  from  having  an  inde- 
pendent foreign  policy,  something  like  the  theocracy 
contemplated  in  the  Mosaic  legislation  could  be  put 
in  practice.  And  of  the  divine  worship  which  con- 
stituted the  main  concern  of  the  city  the  representa- 
tion projected  by  the  Books  of  Chronicles  into  the 
age  of  David  is  likely  to  be  a  faithful  account. 

The  one  fragment  of  history  that  belongs  to  this 
period  tells  how  one  of  the  high  priests  fortified  the 
Temple  and  secured  the  city  against  besieging. 
This  does  not  imply  independence,  but  a  wise  pre- 
caution, since  one  of  the  most  painful  features  of 
warfare  in  all  but  the  most  modern  times  was  that  the 
people,  whether  belonging  to  the  ruling  castes  or  not, 
suffered  all  the  horrors  that  accompanied  the  sack- 
ing of  cities  in  quarrels  that  were  not  theirs.  During 
this  period  Palestine  was  alternately  in  the  power  of 
Egyptian  and  Syrian  princes,  and  was  perpetually 
exposed  to  their  hordes.  The  peculiarities  of  Israel- 
itish  worship  began  to  attract  some  attention  in  the 
Hellenic  world,  and  with  these  the  foreign  garrisons 

[307] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND  DAMASCUS 

located  in  the  Citadel  could  not  fail  to  obtain  a  tol- 
erable acquaintance.  While  in  some  cases  the  im- 
pression created  was  not  unfavourable,  in  others 
Judaism  roused  the  vehement  hatred  which  for  some 
reason  or  other  it  has  constantly  been  found  capable 
of  exciting.  Finally,  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  sec- 
ond century  B.C.,  the  Syrian  monarch,  Antiochus 
Epiphanes,  set  himself  the  task  of  destroying  Juda- 
ism, and  compelling  its  adherents  to  adopt  Hellenic 
culture.  Pagan  worship"  was  instituted  in  the 
Temple  itself,  and  the  animal  which  for  unknown 
reasons  is  abhorred  by  Jews  and  Moslems  was  se- 
lected for  sacrifice.  Interference  with  the  exercise 
of  the  law  provoked  resentment  which  no  amount  of 
oppression  of  a  different  sort  could  have  awakened: 
the  family  of  Mattathias,  a  descendant  of  Asmoneus, 
was  found  equal  to  organising  resistance,  and  its 
members  by  their  victories  secured  to  their  country- 
men a  fresh  lease  of  independence,  and  renewed 
prosperity  for  Jerusalem.  A  tower  commanding 
the  Temple  area  which  had  been  erected  by  the  per- 
secutors was  destroyed  by  the  defenders  of  Judaism, 
and  the  Temple  purified  from  its  defilement. 

To  the  Maccabaean  period — or  a  little  later — there 
belongs  a  description  of  the  city,  professedly  written 
by  a  Greek  of  the  third  century  B.C.,  but  in  reality 
by  a  Jew  of  a  much  later  time,  anxious  as  many  as  of 
his  race  have  often  been  to  conceal  his  nationality 
and  identity.  Whether  this  writer  had  ever  seen 
the  city  which  he  depicts  is  uncertain:  in  any  case  his 
account  is  quite  ideal  and  belongs  rather  to  the  con- 

[308] 


y 


cc 


*§»■ 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

ception  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  of  which  we  have 
seen  the  origin.  Situated  in  the  midst  of  mountains, 
on  a  high  hill,  Jerusalem  was  crowned  with  a  Temple 
girt  with  three  walls  over  seventy  cubits  high.  The 
court  of  the  Temple,  which  was  paved  with  marble, 
covered  vast  reservoirs  of  water — this  part  of  the 
description  is  confirmed  by  Sir  C.  Warren's  discov- 
eries— fountains  of  which  washed  away  the  blood  of 
the  myriads  of  beasts  there  ofifered.  The  streets 
formed  a  series  of  terraces  stretching  from  the  brow 
of  the  hill  down  into  the  valley,  and  were  furnished 
with  raised  pavements,  the  purpose  of  which  was 
to  prevent  the  clean  being  contaminated  by  contact 
with  the  unclean.  It  was  admirably  fortified  with 
a  number  of  towers  arranged  like  the  tiers  in  a 
theatre.  The  compass  of  the  city  was  about  forty 
stades.  The  comparison  of  the  city  to  a  theatre,  of 
which  the  temple  area  was  the  stage,  has  been  made 
by  others,  yet  its  appropriateness  seems  very  doubtful. 
Before  the  Maccabaean  dynasty  had  lasted  a  cen- 
tury, the  precious  possession  of  independence  was 
sacrificed  to  the  personal  ambitions  of  rival  claim- 
ants for  the  chief  place  in  the  State;  Jerusalem  was 
taken  by  Pompey,  and  the  Holy  of  Holies  profaned 
by  the  entrance  of  a  stranger.  But  ere  long  Herod, 
who  in  the  troubles  which  ruined  the  Roman  Repub- 
lic, had  played  with  consummate  skill  a  difficult 
hand,  being  installed  as  monarch,  and  obtaining  pos- 
session of  Jerusalem  at  the  price  of  a  tremendous 
massacre,  restored  the  city  to  greatness  by  no  means 
inferior  to  that  of  its  imperial  days.     His  deeds  were 

[311] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

recounted  by  a  contemporary  of  his  own,  whose  work 
survives  in  the  excerpts  made  by  the  Jewish  historian 
Josephus,  whose  books  form  a  storehouse  of  informa- 
tion on  the  topography  of  Jerusalem,  which,  if  in  no 
wise  to  be  compared  with  Makrizi's  account  of 
Cairo,  is  yet  highly  prized  for  its  fulness  of  detail. 

Money  ruthlessly  extorted  by  Herod  was  spent 
by  him  in  beautifying  and  strengthening  his  capital, 
where  he  rebuilt  the  Temple  on  a  scale  of  unsur- 
passed magnificence — unless,  indeed,  the  concept  of 
the  heavenly  Jerusalem  may  have  affected  the  rep- 
resentations of  Josephus.  The  king  built  three 
towers  "  excelling  all  in  the  world  in  size,  beauty  and 
strength,"  which  he  named  after  his  brother,  his 
friend  and  his  wife.  To  the  north  of  the  city  he 
built  a  palace  surpassing  all  powers  of  description, 
surrounded  with  a  wall  thirty  cubits  high,  containing 
banqueting-halls,  guest-chambers,  avenues,  channels 
for  water,  and  all  else  that  can  be  imagined.  The 
white  marble  blocks  of  which  the  towers  were  con- 
structed were  so  truly  joined  that  each  appeared  to 
be  one  mass  of  stone.  How  much  in  the  descriptions 
of  these  buildings  is  due  to  the  imagination  is  un- 
known: the  buildings  themselves  have  disappeared 
without  a  trace.  Herod's  magnificence  no  more 
won  the  affection  of  his  subjects  than  did  Solomon's 
before  him;  the  people  at  his  death  thought  the 
direct  yoke  of  Rome  preferable  to  an  Oriental  des- 
potism, and  before  the  destruction  of  the  city  they 
had  painful  experience  of  both. 

The   Jerusalem    of    the    Gospels    is,    of    coursCj 

[312] 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

Herod's  Jerusalem,  with  some  alterations  effected  by 
Roman  occupation.  On  the  whole  the  magnificence 
ascribed  by  Josephus  to  the  buildings  of  Herod  is 
borne  out  by  allusions  in  the  early  Christian  records, 
and  an  inscription  discovered  by  M.  Clermont-Gan- 
neau,  composed  in  the  Greek  of  this  period,  in  which 
strangers  are  forbidden  to  proceed  beyond  a  certain 
point  in  the  Temple  area  on  pain  of  death,  strikingly 
confirms  the  statements  of  the  Jewish  historian.  The 
employment  of  the  Temple  at  this  time  as  a  place 
where  those  who  wished  to  give  instruction  could 
do  so  is  similar  to  that  which  is  characteristic  of  the 
Moslem  Mosque.  But  the  elaborate  ritual  of  which 
the  Temple  was  the  scene  has  rather  been  inherited 
by  the  Christian  sanctuary,  though  of  course  the 
abolition  of  sacrifice,  due  to  the  destruction  of  the 
Temple,  has  deprived  religious  worship  of  what 
used  to  be  its  most  important  feature.  The  attention 
of  the  Jewish  historian  and  the  oral  tradition  of  his 
countrymen  is  so  much  engrossed  by  the  Temple,  the 
palaces  and  the  forts,  that  little  is  left  for  the  other 
public  and  private  buildings  which  at  this  time  filled 
the  city;  we  hear  casually  of  a  gymnasium,  and  ob- 
tain a  casual  reference  to  public  baths.  We  hear  of 
numerous  synagogues  shortly  after  the  destruction  of 
the  Temple,  and  it  is  likely  that  there  was  no  lack 
of  these,  in  different  parts  of  the  city,  in  the  period 
which  preceded  that  disaster.  Some  provision  must 
also  have  been  made  for  the  religious  wants  of  the 
foreign  army  of  occupation,  and  indeed  for  those  of 
other  foreign  visitors,  though  the  Romans  seem  ordi- 

[313] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

narily  to  have  respected  Jewish  prejudices  on  this 
subject  so  far  as  possible.  And  especially  must  pro- 
vision have  been  made  for  the  great  numbers  of 
devout  persons  who  visited  the  metropolis  regularly 
at  feast  times. 

Of  Herod's  descendants,  Herod  Agrippa,  the 
friend  of  Claudius,  who  for  his  services  in  connection 
with  the  Emperor's  accession  had  received  his  grand- 
father's kingdom,  continued  the  work  of  fortifica- 
tion, and  commenced,  where  practicable,  a  new  en- 
circling wall,  rendered  necessary  by  the  growth  of 
the  population,  which,  had  it  been  completed, 
should,  in  the  opinion  of  Josephus,  have  rendered 
the  city  impregnable. 

The  city  was  for  a  short  time  the  focus  of  general 
attention  during  the  rebellion  quelled  by  Vespasian 
and  Titus,  and  ending  in  the  fall  of  Jerusalem  in  the 
year  70.  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  the 
amount  of  the  population  at  this  time,  but  our 
authorities  give  figures  which  could  only  with  great 
difficulty  be  accommodated  in  the  space;  600,000,  or 
about  eight  times  the  present  population,  and 
2,500,000,  or  about  thirty-five  times  the  existing  num- 
bers. Moreover,  the  present  population  covers  an 
area  which  seems  certainly  to  include  ground  that 
was  outside  the  city  besieged  by  Titus.  The  same 
must  be  said  of  these  numbers  as  of  the  wall  seventy 
cubits  high  that  surrounded  the  Temple,  that  they 
suit  the  heavenly  Jerusalem  rather  than  the  earthly. 
Whatever  the  numbers  may  have  been,  they  were 
unable  to  defend  the  city,  which  appears  to  have  been 

[314] 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

destroyed  no  less  thoroughly  than  after  its  capture  by 
the  Babylonians.  Herod's  three  towers  are  said  to 
have  been  left,  with  as  much  of  the  western  wall  as 
would  serve  to  protect  the  ruins.  It  would  seem  that 
the  destruction  of  the  public  buildings  did  not  pre- 
vent a  certain  number  of  persons  returning  to  their 
homes,  and  a  community  established  itself  there  after 
the  fall,  similar  to  that  which  may  have  occupied  the 
same  site  before  the  time  of  Nehemiah. 

About  sixty  years  after  the  fall  a  man  who  believed 
himself  to  be  the  Messiah,  and  persuaded  others  of 
the  same.  Bar  Cochba,  heading  a  new  nationalist 
movement  on  the  part  of  the  Jews,  seized  the  ruined 
city,  refortified  it,  and  proceeded  to  rebuild  the 
Temple.  The  revolt  was  not  more  successful  than 
that  described  by  Josephus;  and,  after  its  suppres- 
sion, Jerusalem  was  turned  into  a  Roman  colony, 
called  Aelia  Capitolina,  with  a  temple  to  Jupiter 
Capitolinus  on  the  Temple  area.  To  that  god  in 
Vespasian's  time  the  tribute  had  been  assigned  that 
had  previously  been  sent  by  the  Jews  to  their  own 
Temple,  and  the  Jews  were  forbidden  access  and 
even  approach  to  the  city  of  their  fathers.  The 
name  Aelia  supplanted  the  time-honoured  name, 
which  for  a  while  belonged  exclusively  to  the 
heavenly  city  of  devotional  fancy,  which  the  fall  of 
Jerusalem  under  Titus  had  caused  to  be  painted  in 
more  gorgeous  colours  than  before.  Even  now 
Aelia  is  with  Moslems  the  alternative  appellation  for 
*'  the  Holy  City,"  and  figures  on  the  imprints  of 
books  printed  at  Jerusalem. 

[315] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

Of  the  events  which  led  to  Jerusalem  being  en- 
deared to  half  the  world,  few  at  the  time  realised  the 
importance.  The  progress  of  Christianity,  its  sep- 
aration from  Judaism,  its  honeycombing  the  Roman 
Empire,  and  its  final  adoption  by  a  Roman  emperor, 
form  a  fascinating  subject  of  study,  which  at  no  time 
is  likely  to  make  the  process  perfectly  clear.  Except 
for  the  brief  period  occupied  by  siege  and  fall,  it  is 
probable  that  the  Christian  community  at  Jerusalem 
maintained  a  sort  of  continuity,  and  the  concept  of 
the  New  Jerusalem  covered  the  site  of  the  Old  with 
a  sanctity  of  which  it  was  never  divested,  even  before 
the  instinct  for  pilgrimage  found  its  interpretation 
in  the  desire  to  visit  the  sacred  sites. 

One  of  the  first  results  of  the  conversion  of  the 
Empire  to  Christianity  was  that  steps  were  taken  to 
cover  with  worthy  monuments  the  places  where 
scenes  of  transcendent  importance  had  been  enacted. 
A  church  was  erected  with  great  magnificence  by 
Constantine,  containing  within  its  walls  the  Tomb 
of  Christ,  the  place  of  the  Crucifixion,  and  the  spot 
where  the  True  Cross  had  been  found. 

What  reason  is  there  for  supposing  that  the  sites 
were  still  known  in  the  fourth  century,  and  could  be 
accurately  located?  The  question  has  often  been 
debated,  though  it  is  uncertain  when  scepticism  was 
first  expressed.  The  best  discussion  of  it  is  to  be 
found  in  the  posthumous  work  of  Sir  Charles  Wilson, 
called  "  Golgotha  and  the  Holy  Sepulchre,"  pub- 
lished by  the  Palestine  Exploration  Fund  in  1906. 
The  eminent  explorer's  conclusion  is  ambiguous,  and 

[316] 


JERUSALEM:   AN   HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

does  not  therein  differ  from  that  of  many  others  who 
have  been  over  the  ground.  There  is  no  evidence  that 
the  site  had  any  interest  for  the  Christian  community 
till  long  after  all  chance  of  being  able  to  identify  to 
it  had  disappeared,  owing  to  the  violent  convulsions 
which  had  attended  the  taking  of  Jerusalem  by 
Titus,  its  recapture  at  a  later  time  by  Bar  Cochba, 
and  its  transformation  into  a  Roman  colony  by 
Hadrian.  To  those  who  were  filled  with  belief  in 
the  living  Christ,  any  interest  in  the  Holy  Sepulchre 
W'Ould  savour  of  the  absurdity  condemned  in  the 
Gospel  of  seeking  the  living  among  the  dead.  Only 
when  an  emperor  desired  the  site  to  be  recovered 
persons  would  not  be  wanting  ready  to  discover  it. 
The  question  for  us  is  what  indications  led  those  who 
identified  the  site  to  select  one  rather  than  another. 
How  came  they  to  mention  only  the  most  obvious 
difficulty,  to  place  the  Tomb  inside  the  City,  when 
the  Gospel  leads  us  to  suppose  that  it  was  outside? 
If  the  site  was  in  accordance  with  authentic  tradi- 
tion, the  City  must  have  been  moved,  i.e.,  its  walls 
must  in  the  time  of  Constantine  have  included  a 
space  which  they  did  not  include  at  a  time  when 
there  is  great  reason  for  supposing  the  City  to  have 
been  far  more  populous.  Moreover  is  the  proximity 
of  the  Sepulchre  to  the  place  of  crucifixion  either 
likely  or  suggested  by  the  sacred  narrative?  The 
writers  who  narrate  the  discovery  of  these  sacred 
sites  usually  introduce  into  the  story  the  miraculous 
element;  and  this  portion  of  it  is  scarcely  less  im- 
probable than  the  explanation  given  by  some  nar- 

[317] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

rators  that  the  site  was  learned  from  a  Jew  tortured 
to  reveal  it.  For  why  should  such  knowledge  be 
preserved  by  Jews?  Tradition  seems  unanimously 
to  assert  that  the  site  was  hidden  beneath  a  Temple 
of  Venus,  a  goddess  of  evil  reputation,  whose  shrine 
was  thought  to  be  an  intentional  profanation  of  the 
holy  spot,  and  that  those  who  searched  there  were 
rewarded  by  the  discovery  of  a  grave,  and  presently 
by  other  confirmation  of  their  find.  The  large  liter- 
ature that  exists  on  this  subject  illustrates  the  varying 
effect  of  arguments  not  only  on  different  minds,  but 
on  the  same  mind  at  different  times.  The  ordinary 
visitor  may  be  contented  with  Sir  C.  Wilson's  con- 
clusion that  while  there  is  no  decisive  reason,  histori- 
cal, traditional  or  topographical,  for  placing  Gol- 
gotha and  the  Tomb  where  they  are  now  shown,  yet 
no  objection  urged  against  the  sites  is  of  such  a  con- 
vincing nature  that  it  need  "  disturb  the  minds  of 
those  who  accept  in  all  good  faith  the  authenticity 
of  places  that  are  hallowed  by  the  prayers  of  count- 
less pilgrims." 

Other  writers  have  expressed  themselves  with 
much  less  caution  on  this  subject.  Some  have  re- 
garded the  credit  of  Christianity  as  in  a  way  bound 
up  with  the  site  selected  in  the  time  of  Constantine, 
and  even  Sir  C.  Wilson  says  he  would  attach  more 
weight  to  the  opinion  of  Constantine's  contem- 
poraries than  to  the  conjectures  of  modern  scholars, 
if  it  is  a  question  of  conjecture.  On  the  other  hand, 
those  who  have  been  fortunate  enough  in  modern 
times  to  hit  upon  places  which  seem  to  them  to  cor- 

[318] 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

respond  to  the  requisite  conditions  are  apt  to  express 
themselves  very  positively;  so  Colonel  Conder, 
whose  suggestion  is  marked  on  modern  maps,  re- 
gards it  as  a  happy  occurrence  that  the  sacred  site 
was  trodden  by  the  Crusaders  without  knowledge  of 
its  importance,  and  so  spared  the  terrible  scenes  that 
were  enacted  at  the  taking  of  Jerusalem  in  the  im- 
mediate neighbourhood  of  the  site  selected  by  Con- 
stantine.  Scepticism  has  once  or  twice  been  ex- 
pressed on  the  identity  of  the  present  location  of  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  with  that  of  Con- 
stantine's  building;  but  for  this  there  appears  to  be  a 
continuous  tradition,  interrupted  once  or  twice  for  a 
very  few  years  only,  not  for  a  period  during  which 
there  would  be  any  probability  of  the  site  being  for- 
gotten. Of  the  interruption  of  the  tradition  before 
the  time  of  Constantine  there  is  no  question,  but  we 
have  no  accurate  knowledge  of  the  length  of  the 
break.  In  a  city  built  on  the  plain,  a  site  is  easily 
rendered  unrecognisable  by  such  convulsions  as  be- 
fell Jerusalem  and  its  neighbourhood  in  the  three 
centuries  which  elapsed  before  Constantine  built  his 
church ;  but  on  such  ground  as  is  occupied  by  Jerusa- 
lem, landmarks  are  somewhat  more  permanent. 

In  the  period  which  followed  the  conversion  of 
Constantine  Jerusalem  was  adorned  with  many  re- 
ligious edifices,  and  the  whole  land  began  to  teem 
with  monasteries  and  the  abodes  of  anchorites. 
There  is  a  record  of  a  strange  attempt  made  by  the 
Emperor  Julian  to  restore  the  Jewish  Temple  on  the 
area  which  probably  contained  a  disused  sanctuary 

[319] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

of  Capitoline  Jupiter,  but  for  some  reason  or  other 
this  scheme  was  not  carried  out.  The  practice  of 
pilgrimage  to  the  sacred  sites  grew  in  popularity, 
and  owing  to  various  inconveniences  that  arose  was 
at  times  discouraged,  though  with  little  effect,  by  the 
Fathers  of  the  Church.  The  Empress  Eudocia  is 
said  to  have  rebuilt  the  walls  of  the  city,  and  to  have 
founded  various  religious  and  philanthropic  institu- 
tions both  in  and  around  the  place.  More  impor- 
tance attaches  to  the  buildings  of  the  Emperor  Jus- 
tinian, who  erected  a  hospital  for  sick  pilgrims  and 
finished  the  Church  of  the  Virgin  which  the  Patri- 
arch Elias  had  begun.  Twelve  years  were  occupied 
in  the  erection  of  this  edifice,  of  which  contemporary 
writers  speak  in  enthusiastic  terms.  The  platform 
on  the  Temple  area  selected  for  the  building  not  be- 
ing large  enough,  it  was  artificially  increased  by 
arches  on  substructures.  New  methods  were  de- 
vised for  bringing  stones  and  columns  of  a  size  vast 
enough  for  the  building  contemplated.  The  hospi- 
tal was  to  contain  200  beds,  and  substantial  revenues 
were  settled  upon  it. 

The  Church  of  St.  Mary  in  some  way  escaped  de- 
struction, when  in  614  the  nearer  East  was  invaded 
by  Chosroes — that  last  dying  exploit  of  the  Sassanian 
Empire,  whose  days  were  numbered.  The  Church 
of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  was  not  equally  fortunate,  as 
it,  with  all  its  contents,  was  burnt  to  the  ground. 
The  malice  of  the  Persian  invaders  is  said  to  have 
been  directed  by  Jews,  who,  as  usual,  were  destined 
to  reap  no  permanent  advantage    from    the  catas- 

[320] 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

trophe.  If  the  figures  of  the  historians  are  to  be 
trusted,  the  massacre  effected  by  the  Persians  must 
have  been  on  as  great  a  scale  as  any  of  the  events  of 
the  kind  witnessed  by  Jerusalem;  90,000  Christians 
of  both  sexes  are  said  to  have  perished,  and  65,000 
corpses  were  presently  gathered  and  deposited  in  a 
single  cave  outside  the  Western  Gate. 

The  news  of  this  terrible  blow  to  the  Byzantine 
Empire  penetrated  into  Arabia,  where  the  Prophet 
Mohammed,  still  at  Meccah,  foretold  that  the 
Persian  victory  would  shortly  be  followed  by  a  de- 
feat. The  rebuilding  of  the  Church  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  appears  to  have  commenced  almost  as  soon 
as  the  Persians  had  departed,  the  name  of  Modestus, 
superior  of  the  monastery  of  Theodosius,  being  con- 
nected with  this  restoration,  which  took  ten  years  to 
accomplish.  Mohammed's  prophecy  was  fulfilled 
fourteen  years  after  its  occasion,  and  in  628  the  con- 
queror Heraclius  visited  the  city  on  pilgrimage,  and 
the  part  taken  by  the  Jews  in  the  former  disaster  was 
now  visited  on  them  heavily  at  the  time  when  their 
brethren  in  Arabia  were  suffering  persecution  at  the 
hands  of  another  enemy.  The  imperial  visit  had 
doubtless  the  effect  of  causing  the  city  to  rise  fast 
from  its  ruins,  and  a  few  years  later  a  calculation, 
which  may  rest  on  tradition  or  conjecture,  estimates 
the  population  of  Jerusalem  at  12,000  Greeks  and 
50,000  natives,  about  the  number  of  human  beings 
which  the  city  with  its  suburbs  contains  at  the  pres- 
ent day. 

But  the  restoration  of  Christian  rule  in  Jerusalem 

[323] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

was  not  destined  to  be  permanent.  A  power  of 
which  there  had  been  no  previous  indication  was 
springing  up  at  the  time,  destined  to  give  Jerusalem 
a  new  lease  of  existence  as  a  sacred  city,  while  ban- 
ishing Christianity,  at  least  as  a  dominant  religion, 
from  the  nearer  East.  On  Mohammed's  mind  the 
sanctity  of  Jerusalem  had  in  his  youth  been  im- 
pressed by  those  Jewish  or  Christian  story-tellers 
with  whom  he  had  associated  in  his  travels  as  a 
leader  or  as  a  follower  of  a  caravan.  And  to  him  it 
had  been  portrayed  as  somewhat  similar  to  the 
Bethel  of  Jacob's  dream;  the  place  where  there  was 
a  ladder  between  heaven  and  earth,  whereby  visitors 
could  ascend  or  descend.  For  him  who  was  to  be  per- 
mitted to  approach  the  Deity's  abode  Jerusalem  was 
the  starting  point.  Thither  the  Koran  tells  us  the 
Prophet  made  a  night  journey  from  Meccah;  and  as 
dreamland  is  bound  by  no  conditions  of  space  or 
time,  it  was  the  Temple — long  ruined  and  even  pol- 
luted, but  still  the  Furthest  Sanctuary,  furthest  from 
us  and  so  nearest  to  Allah — whither  he  was  taken; 
it  was  there  that — according  to  the  tradition — he 
mounted  the  Pegasus  that  was  to  convey  him  to  the 
upper  world  and  its  seven  storeys.  Whether  the  tra- 
dition that  gives  us  the  details  of  this  eventful 
journey  is  all  of  it  or  any  of  it  Mohammed's  state- 
ment, cannot  now  be  known ;  all  that  concerns  history 
is  that  it  was  believed.  Jerusalem  was  to  the  fol- 
lowers of  Mohammed  what  Sinai  was  to  ancient 
Israel,  more  than  the  unknown  Mount  of  the  Trans- 
figuration ever  became  to  Christians;  and  yet,  just 

[324] 


JERUSALEM:  AN   HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

as  most  Islamic  institutions  are  coloured  by  some- 
thing out  of  both  the  preceding  systems,  so  the 
Furthest  Mosque  has  associations  similar  to  those  that 
belong  to  each  of  these  mountains.  Starting  thence 
the  Prophet  associated  with  some  of  his  less  mighty 
forerunners,  and  received  the  honours  due  to  his 
worth;  and  thither  he  brought  down  some  of  the 
legislation  which  through  the  ages  is  distinctive  of 
Islam.  So  long  as  Mohammed  was  bent  on  holding 
no  compromise  with  Meccan  idolatry,  it  was  to  the 
Furthest  Sanctuary  that  his  followers  were  com- 
manded to  turn  when  they  prayed.  Only  when  cir- 
cumstances rendered  it  necessary  to  conciliate  Pagans 
and  exasperate  Jews,  was  Meccah  substituted  as  the 
direction  of  prayer. 

Fourteen  years  after  Mohammed's  flight  from 
Meccah  came  the  Moslem  conquest  of  Syria,  decided 
by  the  battle  of  Yarmuk.  The  Patriarch  of  Jeru- 
salem was  invited  to  deliver  up  the  city  without  re- 
sistance to  the  Caliph's  general,  Abu  Ubaidah,  and 
since  the  terms  of  capitulation  included  security  for 
life  and  property,  religious  toleration,  and  involved 
only  the  payment  of  a  poll-tax  and  certain  other  by 
no  means  vexatious  duties,  not  much  difficulty  was 
made  about  accepting  them.  As  the  Christians,  it  is 
said,  declined  to  treat  with  anyone  but  the  Caliph 
himself,  perhaps  doubting  the  power  of  any  sub- 
ordinate to  make  treaties,  Omar,  the  second  follower 
of  the  Prophet,  then  reigning  at  Medinah,  decided 
to  accept  this  condition,  and  came  to  receive  the 
capitulation  of  the  sacred  city.     His  name  has  ever 

[325] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

since  clung  to  it,  in  connection  with  the  Mosque  of 
Omar,  often  falsely  located. 

From  636  till  July  15,  1099,  the  city  remained 
under  Moslem  government;  the  nature  of  which 
renders  religious  toleration  very  variable,  since  it 
depends  on  the  taste  of  the  ruler  for  the  time  being 
whether  non-Moslems  shall  be  molested  or  not. 
And  in  such  a  city  as  Jerusalem,  the  possession  of 
which  could  not  fail  to  be  an  object  of  keen  desire 
to  Jews  and  Christians,  the  tendency  to  fanaticism 
must  always  have  been  greater  than  in  any  part  of 
the  Moslem  world,  except  perhaps  the  sanctuaries 
of  Meccah  and  Medinah. 

The  Moslem  conquest  tended,  therefore,  to  secure 
to  Jerusalem  sanctity  similar  to  that  which  it  had  en- 
joyed under  Byzantine  rule,  though  to  the  Moslems 
it  was  one  of  three  sanctuaries,  to  only  one  of  which, 
and  that  not  Jerusalem,  pilgrimage  was  enjoined. 
When  in  Umayyad  times  the  Caliphate  gravitated 
towards  Damascus,  Jerusalem  ran  a  chance  of  be- 
coming the  central  sanctuary,  perhaps  even  the 
capital  of  Islam;  but  this  prospect  was  found  to  be 
incapable  of  realisation,  and  Islam  would  scarcely 
have  survived  such  a  shifting  of  its  religious  centre. 
If  any  place  in  Palestine  could  supplant  Meccah,  it 
should  rather  have  been  Hebron,  the  city  of  Ibrahim 
or  Abraham,  the  mythical  founder  of  the  Islamic  or 
Hanefite  faith.  The  doctrine  of  the  Koran  con- 
nected the  sacrifice  of  Abraham's  son  not  with 
Mount  Moriah  but  with  the  neighbourhood  of 
Meccah,  where,  indeed,  the  Ka'bah  was  supposed  to 

[326] 


JERUSALEM:   AN   HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

have  been  rebuilt  by  Abraham  and  Ishmael;  the 
heroes  of  Jerusalem  were  persons  in  the  main 
respected  indeed,  but  not  of  primary  importance  for 
Islam. 

In  accordance  with  the  territorial  division  which 
the  Arabs  took  over  from  the  Byzantines,  Jerusalem 
was  situated  in  the  Jund  (or  army)  of  Filastin  (Pal- 
estine), of  which  the  capital  v/as  Ramlah,  in  the  time 
of  the  Caliph  Sulaiman  (715-717)  who  founded  it, 
and  long  after;  when  Ramlah  had  been  destroyed  by 
Saladin  in  11 87,  Jerusalem  inherited  the  right  to 
the  title  of  capital  in  this  province.  But  the  history 
of  Syria  was  chequered,  and  as  the  conquest  of  the 
Abbasids  had  meant  the  loss  of  the  metropolis  to  that 
country,  it  had  a  tendency  to  fall  to  those  usurpers 
whose  efforts  gradually  led  to  the  establishment  of  a 
western  Caliphate,  to  which  Syria  regularly  be- 
longed. Professor  Palmer  observes  that  the  ravages 
of  the  Carmathians  in  Arabia,  where,  in  929,  Meccah 
itself  was  pillaged,  and  the  Black  Stone  removed,  led 
to  Jerusalem  being  for  a  time  the  chief  resort  of 
Moslem  pilgrims,  a  circumstance  which  also  tended 
to  cause  a  recrudescence  of  persecution. 

The  annals  of  a  cathedral  town,  especially  when  it 
is  not  the  capital  of  a  province,  are  unlikely  to  be  ex- 
citing; and  the  scantiness  of  the  annals  of  Jerusalem 
before  the  Prankish  conquest  and  after  it  is  easily 
explicable.  Its  history  is  little  more  than  a  record 
of  damage  and  repair  to  the  Christian  and  the  Mos- 
lem sanctuaries.  This,  as  will  be  seen,  is  fairly  well 
recorded,  but  the  governors  of  the  place  were  not 

[327] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

sufficiently  important  for  chronicles  of  their  doings 
to  be  kept.  The  present  condition  of  the  city,  in 
which  the  Christian  feasts  are  the  matter  of  real 
importance,  which  the  Moslems,  whose  religious  con- 
cern they  are  not,  have  to  regulate,  is  likely  to  reflect 
the  state  of  affairs  that  has  been  normal  since  the 
Moslem  conquest.  The  Moslem  is  a  casual  visitor, 
the  Christian  a  visitor  to  be  reckoned  on.  He  is  not 
a  welcome  guest,  but  as  a  show  place  lives  by  its 
visitors,  it  is  unwise  to  discourage  him  too  much. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  place  of  pilgrimage  loses  some- 
thing of  its  attractiveness,  if  it  be  too  accessible;  ex- 
ploits over  which  no  risk  is  incurred  are  of  little 
honour.  So  long  then  as  the  Christian  pilgrims  were 
only  moderately  humiliated  and  fleeced,  Jerusalem 
could  prosper. 

Mr.  Lestrange,  whose  "  Palestine  under  the  Mos- 
lems "  contains  extracts  from  Moslem  writers  both 
before  and  after  the  Crusaders,  lucidly  arranged  and 
interpreted  with  reference  to  the  present  topography 
of  Jerusalem,  has  drawn  attention  to  the  descriptions 
of  Jerusalem  by  Moslems  who  wrote  at  the  end  of  the 
tenth  and  in  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century 
respectively.  The  first  of  these  was  a  native  of  the 
place,  whose  description  is  somewhat  coloured  by 
patriotism,  and  by  the  theory  of  the  heavenly  Jeru- 
salem. The  second,  a  Persian  visitor,  of  excellent 
repute  as  a  writer,  estimated  the  population  at  twenty 
thousand,  and  fancied  that  as  many  more  Moslem 
pilgrims  sometimes  came  in  the  month  of  pilgrimage. 

Numbers  of  Christians  also  came  on  pilgrimage, 

[328] 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

and  the  Jews  had  a  synagogue  which  was  to  them 
what  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  was  to  the 
Christians;  the  native  writer  of  half  a  century  before 
declared  that  these  two  communities  had  all  the 
power.  One  can  hear  similar  complaints  from  Mos- 
lems now  in  Turkish  cities.  Both  praise  the  place 
for  its  cleanliness;  which,  however,  they  rightly  at- 
tribute to  the  geographical  position  of  the  city,  and 
to  the  mode  in  which  the  streets  are  laid  out,  which 
permits  impurities  to  be  carried  down  by  the  rain. 
Of  the  list  of  eight  gates  made  in  the  tenth  century 
only  one,  the  Bab  al-Amud  (called  by  Europeans 
the  Damascus  Gate)  has  preserved  its  name  up  to  the 
present  time.  The  sites  of  the  remainder  are  not 
difficult  of  identification.  Perhaps  some  of  these 
may  be  on  the  same  sites  as  gates  mentioned  by 
Nehemiah,  though  the  variations  in  the  elevation  of 
the  soil  renders  this  doubtful. 

In  spite  of  the  assertions  of  these  writers  the  con- 
dition of  the  Christians  within  Jerusalem,  as  in  other 
places  where  Moslems  were  in  power,  was  precarious 
in  the  highest  degree.  They  were  in  a  way  hostages 
for  the  good  behaviour  of  their  coreligionists  out- 
side; and  activity  on  the  part  of  the  Christian  powers 
might  be  avenged  on  them.  Moreover,  Islam  was 
lacerated  by  internal  wars,  and  the  contributions 
which  the  different  aspirants  to  power  required  for 
the  support  of  their  armies  could  more  easily  and 
conveniently  be  levied  on  unbelievers  than  on  be- 
lievers. The  Crusaders  were  preceded  by  armies  of 
pilgrims,  large  enough  to  inspire  suspicion,  though 

[329] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

not  of  sufficient  size  to  attempt  violence  with  much 
hope  of  success.  The  destruction  of  the  Church  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre  in  loio  by  the  mad  Hakim  had 
aroused  some  indignation  in  Europe,  and  the  Seljuke 
rule,  which  at  Baghdad  was  accompanied  at  first  by 
violent  disorders,  had  put  the  Christians  of  Palestine 
in  a  worse  plight  than  before.  The  Jews,  whether 
truly  or  not,  were  supposed  to  get  at  the  ear  of  Mos- 
lem sovereigns,  and  avenge  the  ill-treatment  of  their 
brethren  in  Europe  by  falsely  accusing  the  Chris- 
tians of  the  East.  Yet  all  the  wrongs  of  the  branches 
of  the  Church  subject  to  Moslems,  and  all  the 
humiliations  to  which  pilgrims  from  the  West  were 
subjected,  would  have  produced  no  effect,  had  not 
one  man  been  found  gifted  with  the  enthusiasm,  the 
eloquence,  and  the  energy  to  transform  sentiment  into 
words  and  action.  The  historians  of  the  Crusades 
rightly  give  Peter  the  Hermit  a  place  beside  the 
most  powerful  movers  of  human  masses  that  are 
known  to  fame.  That  such  a  man  should  have 
proved  but  an  indifferent  fighter  is  not  surprising; 
credit  must  be  given  him  for  the  possession  of  more 
organising  ability  than  many  mere  rousers  of  en- 
thusiasm have  been  able  to  display. 

The  movement  started  by  Peter  the  Hermit  led  to 
the  foundation  of  the  Latin  kingdom  of  Jerusalem, 
of  which  lucid  accounts  have  been  given  by  Conder, 
Palmer  and  many  others.  On  Friday,  July  15,  1049, 
after  a  siege  of  forty  days,  Jerusalem  was  taken  by 
the  forces  led  by  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  who  himself 
was  the  first  to  scale  the  wall.     His  scaling  tower, 

1 330] 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

which  had  been  vainly  tried  on  the  east  of  the  city, 
was  advanced  with  greater  effect  on  the  north  side 
of  the  wall,  near  the  gate  called  after  Herod;  and 
when  once  the  city  had  been  entered  on  this  side,  the 
forces  of  Raymond  of  Toulouse  entered  without  diffi- 
culty from  the  west  and  south.  The  vanquished 
Moslems  sought  refuge  partly  in  the  Haram  area, 
and  partly  in  the  Tower  of  David.  In  the  former 
place  a  massacre  took  place,  in  which  the  slain  are 
estimated  by  Arabic  writers,  accustomed  to  exag- 
gerate, at  70,000;  while  the  other  refugees  appear  to 
have  been  sent  in  safety  to  Askalon  by  the  efforts  of 
Count  Raymond.  The  impression  created  by  the 
news  in  the  Moslem  world  was  vast.  An  attempt 
was  made  at  Baghdad,  its  centre,  to  start  a  rival  cru- 
sade for  the  delivery  of  the  captured  city,  but  the 
time  was  not  yet  ripe  amid  Moslem  dissensions  for 
such  an  enterprise. 

Godfrey  was  appointed  ruler  of  the  reclaimed  city, 
where  he  refused  on  religious  grounds  to  bear  the 
title  king.  He  proceeded  to  transform  the  mosques 
into  what  many  of  them  had  been  before,  Christian 
churches,  and  to  arrange  on  western  lines  for  the 
proper  maintenance  of  these  as  also  of  those  churches 
which  the  Christians  had  under  Moslem  domination 
been  allowed  to  retain.  A  patriarch  was  soon  ap- 
pointed without  reference  to  either  the  local  Church 
or  to  the  Pope;  and  a  code  of  laws  gradually  drawn 
up  which  has  won  much  admiration,  as  displaying  a 
spirit  far  in  advance  of  the  time  to  which  it  belongs. 
For  military  purposes  a  modification  of  the  feudal 

[333  ] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

system  of  Europe  was  introduced  in  the  new  king- 
dom, which  was  to  include  all  Palestine,  with  certain 
vassaldoms  beyond  its  confines. 

Among  the  most  remarkable  phenomena  of  the 
Crusades  was  the  establishment  of  the  orders  at  once 
military  and  ecclesiastical  of-  the  Templars  and  the 
Knights  of  St.  John.  The  Templars  were  lodged  in 
Aksa  Mosque,  which  at  first  was  used  as  a  royal 
palace;  when  in  1118  the  Order  was  founded.  King 
Baldwin  removed  to  other  quarters,  and  the  knights 
were  housed  in  what  they  called  the  Temple  of  Solo- 
mon, to  which  they  made  various  additions  for  reli- 
gious and  other  needs.  The  Muristan,  now  incor- 
porated in  the  recently  built  German  Church,  retains 
the  memory  of  the  Hospice  of  the  Knights  of  St. 
John,  who  there  had  two  buildings  of  this  nature, 
one  for  males  and  another  for  females.  They  were 
not  the  first  buildings  of  the  sort  for  the  use  of  Chris- 
tians even  since  Moslem  domination;  since  the  good 
relations  between  Charlemagne  and  the  famous 
Harun  al-Rashid  had  rendered  it  possible  for  the 
former  to  found  a  hospice  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  gen- 
eral obtain  tolerable  conditions  for  the  Christians 
resident  there.  A  third  Order,  the  Teutonic,  also 
had  a  hospital  of  St.  Mary  in  Jerusalem,  founded 
after  that  of  St.  John's  Knights,  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  German  pilgrims. 

The  theory  of  the  Frankish  kings  appears  to  have 
been  to  exclude  Moslems  from  Jerusalem,  just  as  non- 
Moslems  were  excluded  from  the  Arabian  sanc- 
tuaries.    In  order  to  replenish  the  devastated  city  the 

[334] 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

second  king,  Baldwin  L,  brought  into  it  a  number  of 
Syrians  from  villages  beyond  Jordan.  The  needs  of 
trade  appear  to  have  caused  the  admission  of  a  cer- 
tain number  of  Jews  into  the  city  during  Prankish 
times,  since  a  traveller  found  two  hundred  Jewish 
dyers  living  under  the  Tower  of  David.  The  vari- 
ous branches  of  the  Oriental  Church,  Abyssinians, 
Armenians,  Copts,  Georgians  and  the  different  sects 
of  Syrians  appear  to  have  all  found  representation 
in  the  Prankish  city,  just  as  they  find  it  now. 

Whereas  at  one  time  it  was  supposed  that  the  West 
owed  much  of  its  architecture  to  the  East,  the  con- 
verse is  now  very  generally  believed.  "  The  monu- 
ments," says  Colonel  Conder,  "  which  the  Latins  left 
behind  them  attest  their  mastery  in  the  art  of  build- 
ing. The  masonry  was  far  more  truly  cut  than  that 
of  the  Byzantines.  The  slender  clustered  pillars,  the 
bold  sharp  relief  of  the  foliaged  capitals,  the  intri- 
cate designs  of  cornices  witness  their  skill  as  masons 
and  sculptors."  The  authors  of  "  The  Survey  of 
Western  Palestine  "  have  made  out  a  list  of  thirty- 
seven  churches  known  to  have  existed  in  Jerusalem 
or  in  the  vicinity  of  the  city  walls  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury. "  Nor,"  they  add,  "  is  this  all  that  remains 
of  the  crusading  town,  for  wherever  the  explorer 
walks  through  the  Holy  City  he  encounters  mediaeval 
remains.  The  whole  of  the  present  Meat  Bazaar, 
adjoining  the  Hospital  of  St.  John  on  the  east,  is  cru- 
sading work,  representing  the  old  street  of  Mal- 
cuisinat;  and  the  walls  of  the  street  leading  thence 
towards  the  Damascus  Gate,  together  with  a  fine 

[335] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

vaulted  building  on  the  east  side,  are  of  mediaeval 
masonry.  The  present  Tower  of  David  is  the  Cru- 
sading Castle  of  the  Pisans,  which  was  rebuilt  as  soon 
as  the  city  was  taken  by  Godfrey.  The  so-called 
Kal'at  Jalut  in  the  northwest  angle  of  the  present  city 
is  the  mediaeval  Tancred's  Tower," 

The  Prankish  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  lasted  eighty- 
eight  years,  and  the  throne  was  occupied  during  that 
time  by  nine  sovereigns,  one  of  them  an  infant,  and 
more  than  one  under  the  influence  of  a  woman.  Ap- 
parently western  government  of  eastern  states  can 
only  be  carried  on  successfully  when  the  western  in- 
vader is  not  a  colonist,  but  a  temporary  occupant,  to 
be  replaced  after  a  time  by  some  one  fresh  from  the 
West;  the  colonist  speedily  degenerates  and  cannot 
even  cope  with  the  indigenous  inhabitant.  Although 
the  state  founded  by  the  Crusaders  was  perhaps  less 
disturbed  by  wars  and  dangers  than  the  ordinary  his- 
tories of  the  time  might  lead  the  reader  to  believe; 
and  the  condition  of  Moslems  subject  to  the  Prankish 
king  was  not  intolerable,  the  new  kingdom  took  no 
root,  and  it  is  agreed  by  students  that  the  effect 
produced  by  the  Crusaders  on  Europe  was  far  greater 
than  anything  which  they  achieved  in  Asia.  It  has 
been  pointed  out  that  many  Arabic  words  remain  in 
European  languages,  as  mementoes  of  that  enterprise, 
whereas  few,  if  any  Prankish  words  have  got  into  the 
vernaculars  of  Syria  or  Egypt  in  consequence  of  the 
presence  of  the  knights.  When  once  the  differences 
between  the  sections  of  the  Islamic  world  had  been 
appeased  by  the  great  Saladin,  the  ejection  of  the 

[336] 


JERUSALEM:   AN   HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

Franks  ceased  to  be  impossible.  The  final  battle,  of 
Tiberias  or  Hattin,  fought  July  2,  1187,  ended  with 
the  army  of  the  King  of  Jerusalem  being  annihilated 
by  Saladin,  and  the  King  himself,  Guy  of  Lusignan, 
falling  into  the  Moslem  leader's  hands.  The  defeat 
appears  to  have  been  due  to  incompetent  leadership 
on  the  Christian  side,  not  to  brilliant  generalship  on 
the  part  of  Saladin.  The  effect,  however,  was  the 
same.  Town  after  town  now  fell  back  into  Moslem 
hands,  and  after  a  futile  attempt  at  resistance  Jeru- 
salem was  given  back  by  capitulation  to  Saladin  on 
October  2  of  the  same  year.  Few  events  in  the  his- 
tory of  Islam  are  more  honourable  than  Saladin's 
entry  into  Jerusalem  without  massacre  and  without 
pillage.  According  to  the  Mohammedan  historian 
of  Jerusalem  the  number  of  the  inhabitants  at  the 
time  was  100,000,  from  whom  ransom  was  demanded 
at  the  rate  of  ten  dinars  per  man,  five  per  woman,  and 
one  per  child.  Guards  were  stationed  at  the  gates, 
and  only  those  who  paid  their  ransom  allowed  to  go 
out.  Yet  several  managed  to  climb  down  the  walls, 
and  many  were  released  on  one  pretext  or  another, 
the  Sultan  being  kind-hearted. 

The  recovery  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Moslem  Sultan 
counted  in  the  East  as  no  less  an  exploit  than  its  con- 
quest had  counted  in  the  West,  and  pilgrimages  to 
Jerusalem  commenced  from  all  Islamic  countries. 
The  Frankish  residents  sold  their  goods  for  what- 
ever they  would  fetch,  being  anxious  to  quit  a  Mos- 
lem city;  and  it  was  suggested  to  the  Sultan  to  seize 
the  gold  and  silver  in  the  churches,  as  not  having 

[337] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

been  included  by  the  capitulation,  but  he,  anxious  for 
the  fair  fame  of  Islam  in  Europe,  refused  to  profit 
by  this  suggestion.  Owing  to  the  crusade  for  the 
second  recovery  of  Jerusalem  in  which  the  English 
king,  Richard  I.,  played  so  noteworthy  a  part, 
Saladin  deemed  it  advisable  to  strengthen  the  forti- 
fications of  the  city,  and  for  that  purpose  came  and 
took  up  his  abode  in  the  hospital  near  the  Church  of 
the  Holy  Sepulchre,  now  called  Muristan.  Artisans 
were  sent  for  from  Mosul,  with  whom  2000  Chris- 
tian prisoners  were  compelled  to  work;  a  series  of 
towers  were  constructed  from  the  Jaffa  to  the  Damas- 
cus Gate,  a  trench  being  at  the  same  time  excavated  in 
the  rock,  whence  the  stones  were  used  in  erecting  the 
towers.  The  Sultan  himself  set  the  example  of 
carrying  stones  on  his  saddle,  and  the  whole  Moslem 
population,  including  ecclesiastical  and  military 
dignitaries,  helped  in  the  work.  In  this  way  opera- 
tions that  might  have  taken,  we  are  told,  many  years, 
were  accomplished  very  quickly.  The  English 
forces  did  not  actually  besiege  Jerusalem  on  this  oc- 
casion, as  a  treaty  was  made  between  Richard  and 
Saladin,  securing  certain  advantages  for  the  Chris- 
tians in  the  holy  city.  Whence  its  great  number  of 
Moslem  inhabitants  had  come  we  are  not  told;  but 
probably  the  state  of  war  caused  many  to  be  home- 
less, and  of  the  Moslem  pilgrims  attracted  by  the 
recovery  of  the  place  many  may  have  been  induced 
to  remain  by  the  favourable  conditions  on  which 
property  could  be  purchased;  and  the  colleges  of 
Baghdad  must  have  been  turning  out  numerous  jur- 

[338] 


TOWER  ANTONIA,  JERUSALEM 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

ists  and  theologians  anxious  to  be  placed.  A  certain 
number  of  Christians,  we  are  told,  asked  and  obtained 
leave  to  continue  residing  in  the  city  on  the  terms 
granted  by  Moslem  rulers  t-o  tolerated  cults. 

The  work  of  Saladin  was  not  to  remain  undis- 
turbed. In  1 2 19,  when  Damietta  was  being  besieged 
by  the  Franks,  Isa,  called  al-Muazzam,  who  had  in- 
herited Syria  from  his  father  al-Adil,  fearing  that 
Jerusalem  might  again  be  taken  by  the  Christians, 
sent  a  party  of  masons  and  sappers  to  destroy  it. 
This  measure  was  followed  by  a  general  stampede 
of  the  inhabitants,  who  disposed  of  their  property  at 
ruinous  prices.  The  people  who  remained  assembled 
in  solemn  supplication  at  the  two  great  sanctuaries  on 
the  Temple  area,  where  this  sovereign  had  himself 
carried  out  many  works  of  decoration,  besides  found- 
ing schools  for  the  study  of  law  and  grammar  in  the 
vicinity.  Doubtless  the  idea  of  this  prince  was  the 
humane  and  advanced  one  that  the  only  way  to  avoid 
disputes  between  the  two  religions  was  to  render  the 
city  common  property,  each  sect  having  free  access  to 
its  own  sanctuary — a  condition  which  would  be  ren- 
dered impossible  by  the  presence  of  walls  and  fort- 
resses, which  must  necessarily  be  in  the  possession  of 
one  party,  only  too  likely  to  tyrannise  over  the  other. 
The  prince  should  have  lived  either  much  earlier  or 
much  later  for  his  views  to  be  practical. 

Some  authorities  go  so  far  as  to  assert  that  his 
workmen  reduced  the  whole  city  to  a  heap  of  ruins 
with  the  exception  of  the  great  Christian  and  Mos- 
lem sanctuaries  and  the  Tower  of  David.     The  de- 

[340] 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

molition  of  these  walls  shortly  afterwards  caused  the 
failure  of  negotiations  for  the  restoration  of  Jeru- 
salem to  the  Franks,  as  an  indemnity  was  demanded 
which  the  Egyptian  Sultan  refused  to  pay.  In  1229 
owing  to  the  quarrels  between  the  representatives  of 
the  Ayyubid  family,  the  Emperor  Frederic  II.  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  the  ruined  city  from  the  Egyp- 
tian Sultan,  on  condition  that  the  walls  should  not  be 
rebuilt,  and  that  there  should  be  no  interference  with 
the  sanctuaries  on  the  Temple  area.  These  terms 
naturally  gave  little  satisfaction  to  either  of  the  con- 
tending religions.  For  eleven  years  the  Franks  held 
the  city  under  them,  when  al-Nasir,  prince  of  Kerak, 
on  the  pretence  that  the  conditions  under  which  the 
sacred  city  was  held  were  being  violated  by  its  forti- 
fication, attacked  the  place,  and  levelled  to  the  ground 
the  Tower  of  David  which  al-Muazzam  had  spared. 
But  for  four  years  afterwards  (1243)  on  the  arrival 
of  the  Duke  of  Cornwall,  brother  of  Henry  III., 
with  a  company  of  English  Crusaders,  the  former 
treaty  was  renewed,  the  Prince  of  Kerak  who  was  in 
possession  finding  it  desirable  to  obtain  the  aid  of  the 
Franks  for  purposes  of  his  own.  It  was  not,  how- 
ever, to  remain  long  in  European  hands.  The  next 
year  the  Egyptian  Sultan  obtained  the  help  of  the 
subjects  of  the  Khwarizm-Shah,  driven  from  their 
country  by  the  Mongol  hordes,  and  20,000  of  these 
appeared  before  Jerusalem,  whose  defences  had  only 
begun  to  rise  after  their  complete  demolition.  The 
Khwarizmians,  whom  history  represents  as  little  less 
savage  than  the  Mongols,  swept  away  the  Christian 

[341] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

population,  beheaded  the  priests  ministering  at  the 
altar  in  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  and 
wrought  great  havoc  in  that  edifice;  the  graves  of  the 
kings  there  buried  w^ere  opened,  and  their  ashes  scat- 
tered, and  other  churches  in  and  about  the  city  were 
desecrated  or  demolished.  Since  the  year  1244, 
Jerusalem  has  remained  in  Moslem  hands. 

With  other  possessions  of  the  Ayyubids,  Jerusalem 
was  handed  on  to  the  Mameluke  dynasties,  whence 
it  came  into  possession  of  the  Turks.  The  attitude 
adopted  by  these  dynasties  towards  Jews  and  Chris- 
tians was  ordinarily  tolerant,  and  both  Jews  and  Mcl- 
chite  Christians  undoubtedly  received  better  treat- 
ment under  their  rule  than  under  that  of  the  Franks. 
At  no  time  since  the  abandonment  of  the  Crusades 
has  the  City  of  David  been  the  focus  of  public  at- 
tention in  both  East  and  West,  as  it  was  when  Europe 
and  Asia  were  contending  for  its  possession.  It  sinks 
into  provincial  mediocrity,  and  is  entirely  over- 
shadowed by  Cairo  or  Constantinople,  the  capital 
whence  it  derives  its  ruler.  Even  its  special  histor- 
ians have  little  to  say  about  it  from  this  time.  To  the 
imperial  historians  it  is  chiefly  of  interest  as  a  place 
of  exile  or  retirement  of  eminent  men  who  com- 
memorate their  residence  there  by  some  benefac- 
tion. 

The  ruined  fortifications  appear  to  have  lain  in 
heaps  till  the  time  of  the  Ottoman  Sultan  Sulaiman, 
the  builder  of  the  existing  walls  which  bear  date  1 542. 
To  the  Christians  the  chief  interest  of  the  place  lay 
in  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre;  to  the  Mos- 

[342] 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL    SKETCH 

lems  in  the  Temple  area.    For  these  two  sanctuaries, 
Jerusalem  might  be  said  to  exist. 

In  order  to  be  true  to  the  title  of  this  book,  a  little 
should  be  said  about  the  work  done  by  the  Mame- 
luke Sultans  for  the  decoration  of  the  city.  Baibars 
I.,  who  built  a  mosque  over  the  supposed  Tomb  of 
Moses,  is  said  to  have  instituted  the  festival  in  honour 
of  the  "  Prophet  Moses,"  which  to  this  day  serves  as 
a  sort  of  counterpoise  to  the  Greek  Easter.  He  re- 
newed "  the  stonework  which  is  above  the  marble  " 
of  the  Dome  of  the  Rock.  Outside  the  city  on  the 
northwest  he  built  in  the  year  1264  a  khan  or  hos- 
pice, which  he  adorned  with  a  door  taken  from  the 
Fatimide  palace  in  Cairo,  and  on  which  he  settled 
the  revenues  of  several  villages  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Damascus.  The  building  contained  a  mill  and  a 
bakehouse,  as  well  as  a  mosque.  Its  purpose  was  to 
harbour  visitors  (perhaps  belated  visitors)  to  the 
city,  and  an  arrangement  was  made  for  the  distribu- 
tion of  bread  at  the  door.  In  Mujir  al-din's  time  the 
revenues  had  already  been  sequestrated,  and  no  more 
bread  was  handed  out.  Baibars  also  repaired  the 
Dome  of  the  Chain. 

The  Sultan  Ketbogha  is  credite'd  with  having  done 
some  repairs  to  the  stonework  of  the  Dome  of  the 
Rock,  and  having  rebuilt  the  wall  of  the  Temple 
area  which  overlooks  the  cemetery  of  the  Bab  al- 
Rahmah  in  the  year  1299.  His  successor  Lajin  re- 
newed the  mihrab  of  David  in  the  southern  wall  near 
the  Cradle  of  Jesus. 

The  great  builder  Mohammed  al-Nasir  naturally 

[343] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND  DAMASCUS 

left  some  memorials  of  his  taste  in  Jerusalem.  He 
faced  the  front  of  the  Aksa  Mosque  with  marble,  and 
opened  in  it  two  windows  which  are  to  the  right  and 
left  of  the  mihrab.  This  was  done  in  the  year  1330- 
133 1.  He  had  the  domes  of  the  two  chief  edifices 
regilt,  so  well,  says  Mujir  al-din,  that,  though  in  his 
time  180  years  had  passed  since  the  operation,  the 
work  still  looked  brand-new.  He  rebuilt  the  Gate  of 
the  Cotton-merchants  in  very  elaborate  style. 

The  Sultan  Sha'ban,  grandson  of  Nasir,  built  the 
minaret  near  the  Gate  of  the  Tribes  in  the  year  1367. 
He  renewed  the  wooden  doors  of  the  Aksa  Mosque, 
and  the  arches  over  the  western  stairs  in  the  Court  of 
the  Dome,  opposite  to  the  Bab  al-Nazir,  nine  years 
later.  The  next  year  the  Franciscans  on  Mount  Sion 
were  massacred  by  this  Sultan's  order. 

The  great  Sultan  Barkuk  built  the  Mueddin's 
bench  opposite  the  mihrab  in  the  Dome  of  the  Rock, 
and  repaired  the  Sultan's  Pool  outside  Jerusalem  on 
the  west.  The  author  quoted  remarks  that  it  had 
gone  to  ruin  and  was  useless  in  his  day.  In  1394  a 
governor  named  Shihab  al-din  al-Yaghmuri,  ap- 
pointed by  Barkuk,  placed  on  the  western  door  of  the 
Dome  a  marble  slab  containing  a  declaration  that 
various  imposts  instituted  by  former  governors  had 
been  remitted. 

The  following  Sultan  Faraj  placed  on  the  wall  of 
the  Bab  al-Silsilah  a  slab  declaring  that  in  future  the 
Sultan's  representative  at  Meccah  and  Medinah  must 
be  a  different  person  from  the  governor  of  Jerusalem, 
which   was   to    form    an    administrative   unit   with 

[344] 


JERUSALEM:  AN   HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

Hebron.  The  effect  of  this  edict  was  quite  tem- 
porary. 

The  Sultan  Jakmak  on  the  occasion  of  his  turning 
the  Christians  out  of  the  Tomb  of  David  in  the  year 
1452  instituted  a  severe  inquisition  into  the  monas- 
teries of  Palestine,  and,  in  consequence  of  this, 
damage  was  done  to  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepul- 
chre and  other  Christian  edifices.  New  construc- 
tions raised  by  the  Franciscans  in  the  Monastery  of 
Mount  Sion  were  demolished,  and  a  chapel  erected 
by  them  near  their  cloister  was  in  149 1  destroyed  by 
order  of  Kaietbai. 

We  may  now  condense  the  history  of  the  two  chief 
sites.  The  Temple  area,  containing  the  Dome  of  the 
Rock  and  the  Furthest  Mosque,  counts,  as  we  have 
seen,  as  one  of  the  three  great  sanctuaries  of  Islam. 
On  the  Israelitish  temples  that  once  stood  there  much 
has  been  written,  and  ingenious  reconstructions  of 
them  are  exhibited  by  the  heirs  of  the  late  Dr.  Shick; 
it  does  not  come  within  our  scope  to  do  more  than 
allude  to  them.  When  Jerusalem  was  taken  by  the 
Moslems,  the  church  erected  by  Justinian  was  on 
part  of  the  area;  and  a  late  writer  who  narrates  the 
erection  of  the  Moslem  temple,  states  that  Omar 
prayed  in  this  building.  For  the  rest  the  account  re- 
produced by  E.  H.  Palmer  of  the  founding  of  the 
Furthest  Mosque  has  been  shown  by  Mr.  Lestrange 
to  be  apocryphal.  It  belongs  to  a  period  after  the 
recovery  of  Jerusalem  from  the  Franks,  when  the 
Arabs  produced  many  an  historical  romance,  and  the 
exploits  of  the  early  heroes  of  Islam  were  adorned 

[345] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

with  divers  fabulous  details.  According  to  these 
works  Omar,  coming  to  the  Sacred  City  to  receive 
the  capitulation  of  the  Patriarch,  demands  to  be 
shown  the  Furthest  Sanctuary.  He  is  taken  to  the 
Church  of  the  Resurrection,  but  tells  his  guide  that 
he  lies;  he  is  then  conducted  to  another  church,  and 
again  refuses  to  be  cajoled;  finally,  he  is  brought  to 
the  Temple  area,  which,  from  Christian  spite  against 
the  Jews,  is  covered  so  thickly  with  refuse  that  it  can 
scarcely  be  approached.  The  Caliph  proceeds  in 
great  humility"  to  clear  away  the  refuse  w^ith  his 
cloak,  and  his  followers  aid  him.  Even  when  this 
w^ork  of  purification  has  been  performed  the  area  has 
to  be  three  times  cleansed  by  rain  from  heaven  before 
prayer  on  it  is  permitted.  Apparently  this  story  is  in 
the  main  an  etymological  myth,  to  account  for  the 
name  Kumamah  (sweepings)  applied  by  Moslems 
not  to  the  Temple  area,  but  to  the  Church  of 
the  Resurrection  (Kiyamah).  The  connection  of 
Omar's  name  with  the  Dome  of  the  Rock  is  probably 
due  to  the  tradition  of  his  clearing  the  site.  A 
curious  description  of  a  building  by  him  above  the 
Rock  has  been  preserved  by  Adamnan,  Abbot  of  St. 
Columba,  as  related  to  him  by  a  French  pilgrim, 
Bishop  Arculphus.  He  states  that  the  Mosque  of 
the  Saracens  was  a  square  building,  put  together  of 
planks  and  beams  yet  large  enough  to  contain  3000 
worshippers. 

The  building  by  Omar  of  a  Mosque  in  Jerusalem 
is,  however,  not  recorded  by  early  Arabic  historians, 
though  Mr.  Lestrange  has  discovered  an  allusion  to 

[346] 


m 


tsr-'-nBapTCr- 


m 


JERUSALEM:  AN   HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

it  in  the  Byzantine  chronicler,  Theophanes.  Of  that 
which  now  bears  his  name  the  Arabic  geographers 
appear  to  take  no  notice;  it  is  a  meagre  building, 
probably  meant  to  commemorate  a  site  on  which  the 
Caliph  said  his  prayers,  he  having  magnanimously, 
according  to  the  legend,  refused  to  do  this  in  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  for  fear  this  might 
afterwards  give  the  Moslems  a  title  to  the  place;  a 
story  which  implies  that  Omar  possessed  a  remark- 
able power  of  projecting  himself  into  the  future. 
That  the  Moslems  who  took  Jerusalem  did  not  seize 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  is  doubtless  due 
to  the  fact  that  this  site  could  have  no  interest  for 
them,  since  their  system  denies  both  the  death  and 
resurrection  of  the  Christian  Saviour;  the  very  name 
Holy  Sepulchre  involves  according  to  them  mendac- 
ity almost  comparable  to  that  of  the  Cretans.  The 
Temple  area  contains  two  sacred  buildings  of  pri- 
mary importance,  the  Dome  of  the  Rock  which  is 
in  the  centre,  and  the  Furthest  Mosque.  Both  are 
ascribed  to  the  Caliph  Abd  al-Malik,  who  reigned 
from  685-705,  and  who  had  a  political  reason  for  en- 
deavouring to  make  Jerusalem  once  more  supersede 
Meccah  as  the  great  place  of  pilgrimage.  Belong- 
ing to  the  Umayyad  dynasty,  which,  though  de- 
scended from  the  most  stubborn  of  the  Prophet's 
opponents,  had,  through  the  ability  of  Mu'awiyah, 
the  first  Umayyad  Caliph,  not  only  usurped  the 
Prophet's  throne,  but  made  it  a  hereditary  possession, 
he  had  the  same  reasons  as  Jeroboam  of  old  for  wish- 
ing to  divert  the  stream  of  pilgrimage  from  the  place 

[349] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

where  both  objects  and  persons  would  remind  the 
visitors  that  their  sovereign  was  seated  on  a  throne  to 
which  others  had  a  better  claim.  The  worship  of 
a  stone  was  held  by  the  ancients  to  be  the  main  article 
of  Arabian  religion,  and  to  this  sentiment  Moham- 
med had  to  give  way,  though  Omar  was  notoriously 
reluctant  to  retain  the  ceremony  of  kissing  the  Black 
Stone,  which  was  the  nucleus  of  the  Meccan  Ka'bah, 
the  surrounding  sanctuary,  and  of  Islam.  Abd  al- 
Malik,  like  most  of  the  Umayyads,  considering  reli- 
gion as  of  political  value  only,  fancied  he  could 
satisfy  his  co-religionists  if  he  provided  them  with  a 
stone  and  a  sanctuary  round  it,  and  appears  deliber- 
ately to  have  started  the  cult  of  the  Rock  round  which 
he  in  the  year  691  built  the  Dome  which  was  to  cor- 
respond with  the  Ka'bah,  ordaining  at  the  same  time 
a  ceremony  similar  to  the  time-honoured  circuit 
round  the  Meccan  shrine.  Like  Jeroboam  he  went 
so  far  as  to  forbid  the  pilgrimage  prescribed  in  the 
Koran,  and  substituted  his  own  for  it.  The  second 
founder  of  the  Abbasid  line  of  Caliphs,  whose  capital 
Baghdad  became  world-famous,  made  a  similar  en- 
deavour, and  for  the  same  reason ;  the  fear  that  a  visit 
to  Meccah  might  turn  Moslems  into  partisans  of  the 
Prophet's  descendants.  But  even  in  the  year  691 
the  ordinances  of  Islam  were  too  deeply  rooted  to 
permit  of  so  tremendous  an  innovation;  and  later 
writers,  regarding  even  the  attempt  as  inconsistent 
with  ordinary  prudence,  suppose  the  sagacious  Ca- 
liph's purpose  to  have  been  to  counteract  the  effect 
produced  on  men's  minds  by  the  magnificence  of 

[350] 


JERUSALEM:   AN   HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

Christian  churches  existing  at  the  time  at  Jerusalem 
and  elsewhere. 

It  should  be  observed  that  some  eminent  authori- 
ties identify  the  Dome  of  the  Rock  with  Justinian's 
Church  of  S.  Sophia,  and  it  has  even  been  suggested 
that  the  Rock  is  itself  one  of  the  sites  regarded  as 
Golgotha.  This  opinion  has,  however,  few  sup- 
porters. 

With  regard  to  the  Stone  it  appears  that  nothing  is 
known  of  it  prior  to  the  statement  of  the  Bordeaux 
Pilgrim,  who  visited  Jerusalem  A.  D.^  333,  and  asserts 
that  near  the  two  equestrian  statues  of  the  Emperor 
Hadrian  still  standing  on  the  Temple  Area  there  was 
a  pierced  stone  which  it  was  the  custom  of  the  Jews 
to  anoint  with  oil  once  in  the  year,  when  they  wailed 
and  tore  their  garments,  after  which  ceremonies  they 
retired.  The  process  of  pouring  oil  on  stones  be- 
longs to  the  pre-Mosaic  religion  of  the  patriarchs;  it 
has  no  countenance  in  the  law  of  Moses.  We  find, 
however,  that  according  to  the  Moslem  tradition  the 
anointing  of  the  stone  was  ordered  by  the  Umayyad 
Abd  al-Malik,  and  continued  till  his  dynasty  closed. 
It  would  seem,  then,  that  what  the  Dome  of  the  Rock 
restored  was  not  a  Mosaic  cult,  but  one  which  be- 
longs to  a  different  stratum  of  the  Israelitish  religion, 
which  somehow  was  continued,  probably  in  secret 
during  the  domination  of  Judaism,  and  after  the 
destruction  of  the  Temple  was  revived.  The  ordi- 
nary theory  identifies  the  rock  with  the  site  of  the 
altar  of  burned  sacrifice,  whence  the  blood  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  conveyed  into  a  chamber  below 

[351] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

the  rock,  whence  it  was  drained  into  the  Kedron. 
Other  suggestions  have  been  made  by  eminent 
explorers. 

The  name  of  Abd  al-Malik  lies  concealed  in  the 
inscription  above  the  cornice  of  the  octagonal  colon- 
nade which  supports  the  Dome.  For  Abd  al-Malik 
the  name  of  Mamun,  who  reigned  from  813  to  833, 
has  been  substituted,  the  alteration  being  still  notice- 
able in  the  crowding  of  the  letters,  and  the  different 
tint  of  the  tiles.  The  person  who  made  this  altera- 
tion forbore  to  alter  the  date  also,  whence  Mamun  is 
said  to  build  this  Dome  in  the  year  691  (72  A.  H.), 
nearly  a  century  before  his  birth.  From  M.  van 
Berchem's  Corpus  of  Cairene  inscriptions  we  have 
already  examples  of  this  mode  of  alteration,  which 
reminds  us  of  the  treatment  by  ancient  compilers  of 
the  documents  which  they  embodied  in  their  books, 
resulting  in  contradictory  statements  being  left  side 
by  side.  M.  van  Berchem  thinks  that  the  bronze 
plates  above  the  northern  and  eastern  doors  belong 
to  the  period  of  Abd  al-Malik,  but  in  these  cases  both 
names  and  dates  have  been  altered,  the  latter  to  the 
year  216  A.  H.  (813  A.  D.) 

The  quotations  of  Mr.  Lestrange  show  that  the 
shape  and  appearance  of  the  Dome  have  varied  very 
slightly  since  its  foundation  by  Abd  al-Malik,  though 
during  the  period  that  has  elapsed  it  has  frequently 
suffered  from  earthquake,  and  the  episode  of  the  oc- 
cupation of  Jerusalem  by  the  Franks  might  have 
been  expected  to  leave  a  permanent  mark  upon  it. 
The  chief  effect  of  the  Frankish  possession  would 

[352] 


DOME  OF  THE  ROCK,  INTERIOR 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND  DAMASCUS 

seem  to  be  found  in  the  chipping  away  of  pieces  of 
the  rock  to  be  taken  to  Europe  as  relics;  the  priests 
in  charge  of  the  Rock  being  amply  paid  for  these 
fragments.  This  abuse  is  said  to  have  led  to  its  being 
paved  over  as  a  precaution;  Saladin  ordered  the 
pavement  to  be  removed,  the  Moslem  theory  of 
sacred  objects  being  different  from  the  Christian. 
The  accounts  given  by  different  visitors  vary  some- 
what as  to  the  number  of  columns,  but  in  most 
matters  are  in  striking  agreement  with  the  present 
condition  of  the  edifice.  Abd  al-Malik  undoubtedly 
employed  Byzantine  artists  for  his  building,  and  to 
them  is  due  the  extremely  rich  mosaics  which  cover 
the  arcades  above  the  columns,  form  a  wide  border 
round  the  dome  and  fill  the  spaces  between  the  win- 
dows. The  cubes  are  not  only  of  glass  coloured  and 
gilt,  but  of  ebony  and  mother-of-pearl,  which  latter 
material  gives  a  lovely  translucent  effect  in  the  dim 
light  beneath  the  dome.  The  designs  are  chiefly 
large  vases  and  crowns  whence  wreaths  and  garlands 
depend. 

Other  sovereigns  who  have  left  inscriptions  in  the 
Dome,  commemorating  work  done  by  them  in  restor- 
ing or  beautifying  it,  are  the  Fatimide  Caliph  Zahir 
(1022  A.  D.),  who  rebuilt  it  after  it  had  fallen  in,  in 
consequence  of  the  earthquake  of  the  year  1016;  Sa- 
ladin (1187),  who  renewed  the  gilding;  the  great 
Cairene  builder,  Nasir,  son  of  Kala'un  (13 18  and 
13 19) ,  and  the  Ottoman  Sultan  Mahmud  II. ;  the  last 
repaired  the  Dome  in  the  first  third  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  but  the  inscription  which  records  what  he 

[354] 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

did  is  imperfect.  Of  the  restoration  by  Sulaiman, 
the  Magnificent  (1520- 1566),  there  is  no  com- 
memorative inscription. 

Yet  much  of  the  special  beauty  of  the  mosque  is 
due  to  him;  it  was  he  who  restored  the  cupola  and 
altered  its  windows,  the  arches  of  which  are  slightly 
pointed,  while  the  older  and  wider  arches  beneath 
are  round;  he  filled  them  with  coloured  glass  in  an 
elaborate  setting  of  small  patterns  so  that  the  light 
filters  through  with  rich  effect.  He  substituted 
Persian  tiles  on  the  upper  parts  of  the  outer  fagade 
for  El-Walid's  mosaics:  for  this  he  probably  im- 
ported Persian  potters,  as  his  predecessors  had  mosaic 
workers.  On  the  broad  border  round  the  building 
a  broken  colour  effect  is  obtained  by  the  juxtaposition 
of  glazed  bricks  of  very  varied  shades,  chiefly  blues, 
from  turquoise  to  full  and  dark  tints  relieved  with 
pale  and  rich  greens,  while  the  bricks  of  the  archi- 
volts  are  glazed  on  their  outer  surfaces  with  blue  and 
white  alternately.  The  pilasters  between  the  win- 
dows are  chiefly  of  a  golden  brown.  These,  how- 
ever, seem  to  have  suffered  more  from  restoration 
than  other  parts.  And  there  must  be  frequent  oc- 
casion for  restoration.  We  saw  workmen  without 
ladders  attempting  to  remove  weeds  growing  far 
above  them,  with  a  long  pole  pointed  with  metal,  this 
while  ineffective  against  plants,  as  it  could  at  most  cut 
off  their  leaves,  scratched  the  enamel,  and  occasion- 
ally knocked  out  a  tile.  Several  bays  have  lost  their 
marble  casing  and  are  temporarily  covered  with  a 
plastering  like  mud  till  Yildiz  Kiosk  allows  the  re- 

[355] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

placing  of  the  slabs,  which  are,  we  were  assured, 
ready  to  hand. 

The  other  great  building  which  occupies  part  of 
the  Temple  area,  the  Aksa  or  Furthest  Mosque,  was 
probably  built  at  the  same  time  as  the  Dome  of  the 
Rock  or  rather  transformed  into  a  mosque  from  the 
remains  of  Justinian's  Church;  but  there  appears  to 
be  no  authentic  account  of  its  origin.  The  later 
romancers  state  that  in  Abd  el-Malik's  time  the 
gates  were  covered  with  plates  of  gold  and  silver, 
which  were  stripped  off  and  turned  into  money  by 
order  of  the  Abbasid  Mansur,  who  utilised  the  sum 
so  obtained  for  restoring  the  Mosque  after  the  rav- 
ages of  an  earthquake,  which  had  wrecked  it  shortly 
before  the  fall  of  the  Umayyad  dynasty.  Another 
earthquake  brought  the  building  down  after  this 
restoration,  and  the  Caliph  Mahdi  (775-785  A.  D.) 
had  it  rebuilt,  but  with  the  proportions  somewhat 
altered;  for  supposing  that  the  weakness  of  the 
edifice  had  been  occasioned  by  excessive  length  and 
deficient  breadth,  he  made  the  new  building  shorter 
but  broader  than  the  old.  It  has  been  shown  that 
these  Caliphs  did  actually  visit  Jerusalem,  whence 
there  is  no  inherent  improbability  in  the  romancers' 
statements  with  regard  to  the  successive  restorations, 
though  the  story  of  the  gold  and  silver  plates  is 
probably  apocryphal.  According  to  a  geographer 
of  the  tenth  century,  in  the  restoration  effected  by 
Mahdi,  the  rebuilding  of  the  several  colonnades  was 
assigned  by  the  Caliph  to  various  governors,  but  a 
portion  of  the  ancient  edifice  and  that  supported  on 

[356] 


«^^". 


«?>:••. 


JERUSALEM:   AN   HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

marble  columns,  remained  embedded  in  the  new.  A 
marble  colonnade  on  the  north  side  had  been  added 
in  the  first  half  of  the  ninth  century  by  the  governor 
of  Khorasan. 

The  account  of  the  building  given  by  the  historian 
of  Jerusalem  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century 
agrees  very  closely  w^ith  its  present  condition,  but 
those  historians  who  described  it  before  the  times  of 
the  Crusaders  appear  to  have  seen  a  much  more  mag- 
nificent edifice,  double  the  width  of  the  present 
Mosque,  with  280  pillars  supporting  the  roof,  and 
fifteen  aisles.  The  Mosque  has  now  seven  aisles 
only.  The  dimensions,  according  to  the  eleventh 
century  traveller,  were  420  by  150  cubits,  the  former 
a  wholly  impossible  figure,  for  which  Mr.  Lestrange 
reads  120,  making  the  width  greater  than  the  length. 
Another  English  writer  supposes  the  Mosque  to  have 
suffered  in  the  taking  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Crusaders, 
and  accounts  for  its  reduced  dimensions  (230  feet  by 
170)  by  the  work  of  the  Franks,  who,  however,  are 
supposed  to  have  added  rather  than  to  have  taken 
away,  and  whose  work  was  removed  without  much 
difficulty,  it  would  seem,  by  Saladin.  In  the  case 
of  a  building  at  Jerusalem  the  chance  of  exaggera- 
tion cannot  be  eliminated,  whence  it  seems  doubtful 
whether  there  is  any  necessity  for  the  hypothesis  to 
which  reference  has  been  made. 

The  small  Dome  of  the  Chain,  which  is  a  few 
paces  east  of  the  Dome  of  the  Rock,  is  supported  on 
seventeen  pillars,  without  any  enclosing  wall,  except 
on  the  kiblah  side.     Moslem  writers  have  fabulous 

[359] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

accounts  of  the  reason  why  a  chain  was  suspended 
from  this  dome,  which  in  Frankish  days  is  said  to 
have  been  called  the  Chapel  of  St.  James  the  Less. 
Mr.  Lestrange  has,  in  this  case,  too,  the  merit  of 
having  refuted  certain  fictions  that  have  got  into 
European  works  from  a  late  Arabic  historian  of 
Jerusalem,  with  reference  to  the  origin  of  this  build- 
ing, which  may  be  as  old  as  the  Dome  of  the  Rock. 
A  dome  should  serve  to  shelter  something,  probably 
an  image,  and  the  fact  of  this  dome  being  open  all 
round  is  evidence  that  its  original  purpose  must  have 
been  something  of  the  kind. 

Another  of  the  many  isolated  buildings  is  a  little 
sebil,  or  drinking  fountain,  built  in  1445  by  Kaietbai, 
of  whose  Palace  in  Cairo  we  have  an  illustration,  and 
who  has  left  traces  at  Damascus  also  of  his  love  of 
building.  This  fountain  is  thoroughly  Egyptian  in 
style,  and  bears  considerable  resemblance  to  Kaiet- 
bai's  Tomb,  especially  in  the  shape  of  the  cupola, 
its  ornamentation  of  arabesques  and  its  metal  finial. 

Of  the  other  domes  and  sanctuaries  included  in 
the  Temple  area  the  existence  is  certified  at  various 
times  before  the  Crusades,  but  there  would  appear  to 
have  been  some  variation  both  in  their  names  and 
location.  The  same  is  true  of  the  eleven  gates  of  the 
area. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Church  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre  goes  back  to  the  time  of  Constantine,  who 
enclosed  the  three  sites  of  importance  within  a  single 
building.  After  the  destruction  of  the  church  by 
Khosroes    three,  or  according  to  some    authorities 

[360] 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

four,  separate  churches  were  erected  in  the  same 
area.  In  loio  the  church  was  again  destroyed  by 
order  of  the  Fatimide  Caliph  Hakim;  various  ac- 
counts are  given  of  the  motive  or  occasion  for  this 
arbitrary  proceeding,  and,  as  might  be  expected,  the 
Jews  are  supposed  to  have  had  hand  in  it.  In  the 
case  of  this  particular  despot  it  is  unnecessary  to 
search  for  either.  Rebuilding  is  said  to  have  com- 
menced shortly  afterwards,  but  it  would  appear  that 
serious  operations  did  not  begin  till  1037,  after 
lengthy  negotiations  between  the  Byzantine  Em- 
perors and  the  Egyptian  Caliphs;  the  church,  in  the 
condition  in  which  it  was  found  by  the  Crusaders, 
was  finished  by  the  year  1048,  chiefly  at  the  expense 
of  Constantine  Monomachus,  who  sent  Byzantine 
architects  for  the  purpose.  The  cave  of  the 
sepulchre  was  surmounted  by  a  circular  church, 
while  detached  chapels  were  erected  over  the  other 
sites,  which  were  now,  owing  to  the  accumulation  of 
legends,  more  numerous  than  they  had  been  in  the 
time  of  Constantine  or  Heraclius.  The  Franks  en- 
larged the  Rotunda,  which  covered  the  sepulchre,  by 
the  addition  of  the  choir,  from  the  southeast  of 
which  walls  were  built  so  as  to  include  the  Calvary 
chapel,  while  on  the  east  the  choir  was  connected 
through  the  Chapel  of  St.  Helena  with  the  Chapel  of 
the  Invention  of  the  Cross.  During  the  Frankish 
period  the  Church  was,  of  course,  in  the  possession 
of  the  Latins,  whereas  after  the  conquest  of  the  city 
by  Saladin  the  Greeks  resumed  possession;  certain 
rights  were  afterwards  purchased  for  the  Latins  in 

[361] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

1305,  and  in  1342  they  obtained  possession  of  the 
Chapel  of  the  Apparition.  Of  the  damage  done  to 
the  Church  by  the  Khwarizmians  when  the  city  was 
finally  restored  to  the  Moslems  mention  has  already 
been  made,  and  at  some  time  all  entrances  were 
closed  except  one  in  order  to  save  Moslems  trouble 
in  the  collection  of  admission  fees  from  pilgrims. 
In  1502  Peter  Martyr  was  sent  by  Ferdinand  of  Arra- 
gon  to  negotiate  a  treaty  for  the  defence  of  pilgrims 
and  the  maintenance  of  the  sanctuaries.  In  1598  the 
Pasha  of  Damascus  wished  to  turn  the  church  into  a 
mosque,  but  was  induced  to  desist  by  the  representa- 
tions of  French  and  Venetian  envoys.  These  dates 
are  given  by  Sepp,  who  has  also  gone  more  fully  than 
other  writers  into  the  history  of  the  Latin  orders 
established  in  Palestine,  and  the  martyrdoms  en- 
dured by  overenthusiastic  preachers  to  Moslems,  till 
orders  were  issued  from  Rome,  forbidding  such  en- 
deavours. In  1808  a  conflagration  occurred  which 
did  considerable  damage,  but  this  had  been  repaired 
by  September  11,  1810,  at  a  cost  of  4,000,000  of 
roubles.  To  one  who  has  witnessed  the  ceremony  of 
the  appearance  of  the  Sacred  Fire  it  is  marvellous 
that  such  conflagrations  are  not  more  frequent. 

Modern  Jerusalem  is  the  product  of  a  variety  of 
forces  which  had  free  play  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
religious  revivals  in  England  and  America,  archaeo- 
logical enthusiasm  in  the  same  countries,  and  politi- 
cal ambitions  on  the  part  of  various  European 
nations  concerned  with  the  nearer  East.  To  these 
there  has  been  added  in  quite  recent  times  the  force 

[362] 


...  rem  ' 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

of  Zionism,  the  programme  of  those  who  regard  a 
return  to  Palestine  as  the  natural  solution  of  the 
problem  raised  by  anti-Semitism  in  the  countries 
where  there  are  the  largest  Jewish  congregations. 
The  relations  between  the  Ottoman  empire  and  the 
European  powers  being  so  very  different  from  what 
they  were  when  Europe  was  in  disorder,  Jerusalem 
has  by  these  various  forces  been  transformed  into  a 
centre  for  religious  and  philanthropic  effort,  uncon- 
nected to  a  great  extent  with  either  of  the  sanctuaries 
which  formerly  constituted  its  chief  attraction. 
Curiosity  attracts  nearly  as  many  visitors  as  are 
drawn  by  devotion,  and  the  ease  with  which  pil- 
grimage can  be  accomplished  detracts  somewhat 
from  its  merit.  While  the  Christian  and  Jewish 
quarters  are  constantly  expanding,  the  latter  indeed 
at  an  enormous  rate,  the  Moslem  population  shows 
no  sign  of  increase,  and  its  members,  while  not  un- 
affected by  European  philanthropy,  appear  ordi- 
narily incapable  of  emulating  Western  enterprise. 
Those  who,  like  the  Khalidi  family,  do  so,  are  hap- 
pily adopting  the  conception  of  unsectarian  philan- 
thropy, which  the  new  and  bloodless  invasion  from 
Europe  has  brought.  The  enthusiasm  which  char- 
acterised the  descriptions  of  those  who  arrived  there 
at  the  cost  of  vast  sacrifices  is  wanting  in  the  memoirs 
of  the  traveller  who  is  conveyed  thither  comfortably 
by  steam;  yet  it  is  probable  that  in  population  and 
in  the  beauty  of  its  buildings  modern  Jerusalem 
would  compare  favourably  with  the  Jerusalem  of 
any  earlier  period.     Certainly  at  no  time  have  life 

[364] 


JERUSALEM:   AN    HISTORICAL   SKETCH 

and  property  been  so  safe,  or  the  relations  between 
the  different  elements  of  the  population  so  satisfac- 
tory. The  number  of  tongues  spoken  by  its  inhabi- 
tants and  its  visitors,  great  even  in  the  time  of  the 
Apostles,  is  now  phenomenal,  being  variously  esti- 
mated at  from  twenty-five  to  forty.  But  the  dangers 
which  used  at  one  time  to  attend  a  great  influx  of 
strangers  are  now  almost  forgotten,  and  the  most 
crowded  solemnities  pass  off  with  little  or  no  dis- 
order. Should  the  present  tendencies  meet  with  no 
unexpected  check,  the  city  may  long  maintain  the 
position  of  an  international  sanctuary,  common  to 
the  chief  religions  of  the  world. 


[365] 


Olljapter  SImdw 

THE   PRAISES   OF   DAMASCUS 

^^^^^HE  enthusiastic  language  of  Moslem 
m  C|  writers  about  the  beauties  of  Damascus, 
^.  J  which  they  regard  as  an  earthly  Paradise, 
^^"^^  may  seem  to  western  visitors  exaggerated 
and  true  of  it  only  at  an  age  long  past,  if  ever.  And, 
indeed,  there  are  few  show  buildings  left  where  once 
there  were  many.  The  great  Umayyad  Mosque, 
much  of  it  brand  new,  is  the  one  important  edifice, 
whither  the  sight-seer  hastens;  there  are  besides  one 
or  two  show-houses,  gorgeous  rather  than  beautiful; 
and  the  Bazaars,  still  illustrative  of  Oriental  manners, 
are  probably  roofed  with  European  materials,  and 
largely  stocked  with  European  goods.  The  beauty  of 
the  place  lies  rather  in  its  natural  than  its  artificial  en- 
dowments. Its  situation  is  indeed  neither  wild  nor 
grand;  but  the  contrast  between  its  luxurious  vegeta- 
tion with  its  copious  waters,  and  the  arid  region 
which  often  lies  between  it  and  the  traveller's  start- 
ing-point or  destination,  connects  it  in  the  mind  with 
eastern  conceptions  of  Paradise,  literally  a  garden, 
and  never  represented  without  trees  and  running 
water.     A  fountain  enlivens  the  courtyard  of  every 

[366] 


THE    PRAISES   OF   DAMASCUS 

house:  to  him  who  looks  down  upon  the  city  from 
Mount  Kasion  the  minarets  and  castle-battlements 
appear  to  rise  out  of  an  orchard;  peace  seems  to  reign 
within  its  walls,  and  plenteousness  within  its  palaces. 
To  the  southwest  the  snow  of  Mount  Hermon  lends 
a  touch  of  Alpine  beauty  to  the  scene.  The  moun- 
tains which  surround  it  on  three  sides  are  no  more 
than  a  background  to  the  picture,  viewed  from  the 
east;  they  are  a  natural  finish  to  the  landscape,  not 
a  bulwark  of  defence. 

Probably  the  eastern  admiration  for  Damascus 
was  in  part  at  least  influenced  by  certain  material 
comforts,  chiefly  its  abundant  fruit,  and  in  ordinary 
circumstances  the  cheapness  of  living,  which  even  a 
system  of  railways  with  Damascus  for  terminus  has 
not  yet  seriously  changed.  Another  beauty  of  a 
more  artificial  sort  lay  in  the  goods  manufactured 
there  by  craftsmen  who  inherited  their  skill  and 
transmitted  it  to  their  descendants,  till  foreign  con- 
querors withdrew  them  from  the  place,  hoping  to 
transplant  their  crafts.  Such  was  the  manufacture 
of  damask,  and  equally  famous  that  of  Damascene 
blades. 

A  Damascene  writer  of  the  ninth  or  tenth  century 
of  Islam,  translated  by  M.  Sauvaire,  makes  out  a  list 
of  the  beauties  of  his  native  city,  some  of  which  still 
exist,  while  others  are  in  ruins  or  have  disappeared. 
The  list  is  heterogeneous,  as  it  deals  with  single 
buildings,  villages  and  flowers.  The  last  include 
"  the  many-flowering  eglantine,  trained  over  arbours 
like  the  vine";  narcissus,  violets — this  flower  gives 

[367] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

its  name  to  a  neighbouring  valley — jessamine,  lily, 
lilac,  ox-eye,  cyclamen,  myrtle,  anemone,  water-lily, 
Egyptian  sallow,  and  one  called  "  Stop  and  look!" 

Among  buildings  he  assigns  the  first  place  to  the 
Citadel,  which  has  long  been  a  shell;  from  a  distance 
it  still  looks  formidable,  but  the  interior  is  in  ruins. 
In  the  tenth  century  of  Islam  it  was  still  a  hive  of 
activity,  containing  a  bath,  a  mill,  various  shops,  a 
mint,  a  mosque,  and,  of  course,  the  governor's  palace. 
The  canal  called  Banyas  passed  through  the  Citadel, 
and  divided  into  two  streams,  one  for  drinking  pur- 
poses, parted  afresh  into  a  number  of  rills,  while  the 
other  served  as  a  drain,  and  went  some  twelve  feet 
underground  to  issue  at  the  Little  Gate,  whence  it 
was  turned  towards  farms.  The  round  tower  of  the 
Citadel,  "  which  might  have  been  cast  in  a  mould  of 
wax,"  was  thought  to  have  no  rival  in  the  world.  At 
one  time — probably  during  the  Mameluke  period 
only — the  Citadel  possessed  a  great  council-chamber 
whose  walls  and  ceilings  were  covered  with  the  rich- 
est arabesques,  and  inscribed  with  texts  of  the  Koran 
written  in  gold-leaf.  Its  foundation  is  ascribed  to 
Atsiz,  the  contemporary  of  Badr  al-Jamali,  who  for 
a  time  got  possession  of  the  chief  Syrian  cities;  but 
it  was  rebuilt  by  Nur  al-din,  in  whose  time  the 
eastern  peoples  had  learned  something  about  for- 
tresses from  the  Crusaders.  Further  improvements 
were  made  by  the  Egyptian  Sultan  Adil,  who 
ordered  each  member  of  his  family  to  build  a  tower, 
and  whose  name  remains  in  an  inscription  of  thd 
northeast  tower.    The  towers  were  stripped  of  their 

[368] 


^^ 


THE   PRAISES   OF   DAMASCUS 

roofs  and  the  walls  of  their  battlements  by  Hulagu's 
Mongols;  these  were  restored  by  the  Sultan  Baibars, 
whose  services  are  recorded  in  several  inscriptions. 
Great  damage  was  done  when  Timur-Lenk  besieged 
and  took  the  city;  a  trench  was  dug  round  the  round 
tower,  and  wood  piled  against  it  and  fired.  The 
ruinous  condition  of  the  whole  edifice  apparently 
dates  from  the  time  of  the  disbanding  of  the  Janis- 
saries, at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

In  Mameluke  times  the  governor's  palace  was  with- 
in the  Citadel,  once  three  storeys  high.  The  present 
palace,  or  Serai,  is  said  to  occupy  the  site  of  one  built 
by  the  Sultan  Nur  al-din,  called  "  House  of  Justice." 
The  modern  building  dates  from  the  time  of  Ibrahim 
Pasha,  who  effected  many  changes  in  Damascus.  A 
famous  palace  in  Damascus  called  the  Parti-coloured 
Castle  was  the  model  for  similar  buildings  else- 
where; it  dated  from  the  time  of  the  Sultan  Baibars, 
and  was  located  in  the  Meidan. 

Below  the  Citadel,  i.e.,  on  the  east  side,  there  was 
a  square  somewhat  similar  to  the  Rumailah  Place 
below  the  Cairene  Citadel.  This  counted  as  one  of 
the  beauties  of  Damascus,  being  surrounded  by  pal- 
aces, and  supplied  with  all  that  could  delight  the  ear 
or  charm  the  eye.  Shops  stocked  with  all  kinds  of 
goods  were  established  there.  It  was  a  pleasure  re- 
sort of  the  people  of  the  city  at  evening  time,  till  a 
double  beat  on  the  drums  within  the  Citadel  re- 
minded them  that  the  second  watch  of  night  had  be- 
gun, and  they  cleared  away  to  their  homes. 

The  Citadel  was  joined  at  either  side  by  the  walls, 

[371] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

which,  where  they  still  exist,  display,  as  has  often 
been  remarked,  traces  of  three  styles  of  buildings 
Roman,  Arab  and  Turkish.  Inscriptions  on  the 
towers  forming  part  of  the  wall  record  the  names 
of  Nur  al-din,  who  is  credited  by  the  historians  with 
having  rebuilt  the  walls,  and  the  Ayyubid  Salih. 
The  height  is  from  fifteen  to  twenty  feet.  The  Mos- 
lems have  a  tradition  that  when  the  place  was  taken 
there  were  seven  gates,  called  like  the  weekdays  after 
the  seven  planets;  and  the  gates,  they  assert,  were  sur- 
mounted by  images  of  the  deities  corresponding  with 
those  planets — probably  they  mean  before  Christian 
times.  If  there  be  any  truth  in  this  tradition,  the 
names  must  have  all  been  altered,  for  the  modern 
names  can  be  traced  back  to  an  early  period  of  the 
Moslem  occupation  with  only  a  few  variations. 
Two  new  gates,  called  Faraj  and  Salamah,  in  the 
style  of  the  gates  of  Cairo — these  words  mean  "  Safe- 
ty "  and  "  Deliverance " — are  said  to  have  been 
added  by  the  Ayyubids.  Another  gate  that  once  ex- 
isted was  called  Bab  al-Imarah,  from  the  new  quar- 
ter to  which  it  led. 

The  waters  of  Damascus  naturally  take  their  place 
among  its  beauties,  and  of  the  pride  of  the  inhabi- 
tants in  their  rivers  we  have  a  trace  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment story  of  Naaman,  who  felt  personally  wounded 
at  the  suggestion  that  the  Israelitish  Jordan  could 
possess  properties  not  to  be  found  in  the  waters  of 
Damascus.  In  these  days  the  Damascenes  are  said 
to  attribute  to  their  waters  the  actual  property  re- 
quired by  the  Syrian  Captain,  viz.,  that  of  curing 

[  372  ] 


THE   PRAISES   OF   DAMASCUS 

leprosy,  or  at  least  preventing  it  spreading.  This 
belief  must  go  back  in  some  way  to  the  story  of 
Naaman.  From  an  early  time  there  has  existed  an 
elaborate  system  of  canals,  by  which  the  water  of 
the  Barada  has  been  made  to  irrigate  a  large  area. 
Within  the  city  the  water  is  conducted  in  under- 
ground tubes  from  which  every  house  gets  its  supply. 
In  von  Kremer's  time  leaks  in  the  tubes  were  re- 
paired by  putting  refuse  into  the  water,  which  even- 
tually stopped  them;  but  this  process  naturally  was 
insanitary.  Modern  and  ancient  writers  agree  as  to 
the  names  of  six  canals  drawn  off  the  main  river  be- 
fore it  enters  Damascus  and  flowing  at  different 
levels.  The  channels  for  these  are  largely  excavated 
in  the  rock,  and  are  thought  to  be  at  least  partly  pre- 
Islamic.  The  most  northerly  of  these,  which  bears 
the  name  Yazid,  is  said  to  have  been  dug  by  the 
Caliph  of  that  name,  who  reigned  from  680  to  683. 
Further  operations,  with  a  view  to  irrigation,  are 
said  to  have  been  executed  by  the  Umayyad  Caliphs 
Sulaiman  and  Hisham,  but  the  account  of  them  is 
not  quite  easy  to  understand.  Apparently  they  con- 
sisted in  making  arrangements  whereby  the  amount 
of  water  to  flow  in  each  channel  could  be  exactly 
regulated.  Besides  the  water  supplied  by  the 
Barada,  there  were  supposed  to  be  360  springs  be- 
tween the  Bab  Salamah  and  the  Bab  Tuma  to  the 
northwest  of  the  city,  all  flowing  southwards.  The 
number  is  one  used  by  Arabic  writers  to  denote 
an  indefinite  quantity,  one  for  each  day  in  the 
year. 

[373] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

Two  places  are  mentioned  by  a  writer  on  the 
Beauties  of  Damascus,  in  which  the  water  furnished 
the  chief  attraction.  One  of  these  was  called  the 
Place  Between  the  Two  Rivers,  to  the  east  of  the 
city,  where  the  Barada  parted  into  two  channels,  of 
which  one  bore  the  name  of  the  saintly  Sheik 
Arslan.  It  was  used  as  a  place  of  public  entertain- 
ment, and  the  names  of  the  dealers  in  different  kinds 
of  refreshments  who  had  stalls  there  exhibit  wonder- 
ful specialisation.  That  the  religious  needs  of  the 
visitors  might  be  gratified  also,  there  was  a  chapel 
where  special  rites  were  performed  on  Tuesdays  and 
Saturdays;  some  of  these  ceremonies,  probably  forms 
of  dance,  were  of  a  sort  calculated  to  daze  those  who 
witnessed  them.  Another  place  of  public  resort  was 
"  The  Parting  of  the  Streams,"  said  to  be  where  the 
seven  canals  divided,  but  this  can  scarcely  be  correct. 
The  pools  and  cascades  formed  by  one  of  these  canals 
were,  we  are  told,  and  may  well  believe  it,  "  a  spec- 
tacle which  banished  care  and  made  sorrow  fly 
away." 

The  southerly  canal,  called  Kanawat,  was  made 
with  the  view  of  supplying  the  city  with  drinking 
water,  which  is  abundant  and  good.  But  as  all  ad- 
vantages have  some  corresponding  drawback,  the 
wealth  of  water  with  which  Damascus  is  blessed  is 
probably  the  reason  why  fever  prevails  there  as  mucK 
as  in  any  city  of  Syria.  On  the  other  hand,  those 
who  had  to  defend  the  place  against  besiegers  could 
at  times  utilise  the  waters  for  rendering  approacK 
difficult,  and  the  Barada  itself  saved  the  necessity  of 

[374] 


^.«w 


.^ 


/ 


THE   PRAISES   OF   DAMASCUS 

building  many  towers  to  strengthen  the  wall  before 
which  it  flows. 

The  classical  writers  say  little  or  nothing  of  the 
buildings  of  Damascus,  yet  there  is  evidence  that  the 
city  contained  some  fine  monuments  when  the  Arabs 
took  it,  and  we  hear  of  two  palaces  near  the  site 
of  the  Umayyad  Mosque.  With  the  Street  called 
Straight,  famous  from  the  allusion  to  it  in  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles,  it  is  usual  to  identify  the  great  thor- 
oughfare bisecting  the  city  from  the  western  gate, 
called  Bab  al-Jabiyah  probably  from  a  village  of  that 
name,  to  the  gate  still  called  eastern  (Sharki).  The 
gates  were  originally  threefold,  and  between  them 
was  a  threefold  avenue,  divided  by  Corinthian  colon- 
nades, the  central  being  for  the  use  of  foot-passengers, 
while  the  other  two  were  to  enable  the  horse-traffic 
going  in  opposite  directions  to  keep  separate.  "  I 
have  been  enabled,"  says  J.  L.  Porter,  "  to  trace  the 
remainder  of  colonnades  at  various  places  over  nearly 
one-third  of  the  length  of  this  street.  Wherever  ex- 
cavations are  made  in  the  line,  fragments  of  columns 
are  found  in  situ,  at  the  depth  in  some  places  of  ten 
feet  and  more  below  the  present  surface:  so  great  has 
been  the  accumulation  of  rubbish  during  the  ages. 
This  street  was  thus  a  counterpart  to  those  still  seen 
in  Palmyra  and  Jerash."  Further  traces  of  this 
ancient  thoroughfare  have  been  discovered  at  a  later 
period.  The  Arabs  blocked  up  all  but  the  northern 
passage  of  the  gates.  There  is  at  present  no  street  in 
Damascus  which  would  command  much  admiration, 
but  the  long-roofed  bazaars,  of  which  that  called 

I  3771 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

Hamidiyyah  (after  the  present  Sultan)  is  the  most 
important,  are  admirably  adapted  to  the  traffic  of  the 
place,  though  the  absence  of  trottoirs  occasions  some 
inconvenience.  On  the  justice  of  the  identification 
of  the  Street  called  Straight  it  would  be  unwise  to 
make  any  pronouncement. 

Fifteen  churches  are  said  to  have  been  granted  to 
the  Christians  by  the  Moslem  conqueror,  but  the 
author  of  the  "  Description  "  can  apparently  enumer- 
ate only  thirteen,  and  in  this  list  one  is  a  Jewish  syna- 
gogue. In  most  cases  too  he  can  only  locate  them 
roughly,  without  being  able  to  specify  their  names: 
the  romancer  translated  in  the  next  chapter  was  better 
informed.  The  church  of  St.  Mary  was  the  most 
famous,  and  according  to  Ibn  Jubair  was  the  next 
most  important  Christian  edifice  in  the  east,  after  the 
Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre;  it  contained  a  mar- 
vellous number  of  ikons,  "  sufficient  to  bewilder  the 
thought  and  arrest  the  eye."  When  the  news  of  the 
defeat  of  the  Mongols  in  1260  reached  Damascus, 
the  Moslems  attacked  this  church  and  destroyed  it. 
Most  of  the  others  fared  similarly  at  some  time  or 
other.  A  church,  curiously  called  "  the  Crusaders',  " 
was  turned  into  a  mosque  in  the  time  of  Saladin  at 
the  instance  of  a  silk-merchant,  who  asserted  that  it 
had  been  a  mosque  originally;  he  got  a  crowd  to- 
gether to  dismantle  it,  and  when  the  images  had  been 
removed  from  the  south  side,  a  mihrab  was  discov- 
ered, surrounded  by  an  Arabic  inscription  in  lapis 
lazuli ;  the  crowd  were  overjoyed  at  this  confirmation 
of  the  man's  assertion.     Another  pretence  whereby 

[378] 


THE    PRAISES    OF   DAMASCUS 

churches  could  be  destroyed  was  that  they  had  either 
not  been  included  in  the  original  treaty  of  capitula- 
tion, or  that  they  had  been  built  since  that  time,  so 
we  are  told  that  "  the  Mosque  of  Shahrazuri  in  Elo- 
quence Street"  was  a  church  that  had  not  been 
specified  in  the  treaty.  When  the  "  Description  "  was 
written,  it  would  appear  that  there  were  only  two 
churches  in  Damascus,  one  belonging  to  the  Jacob- 
ites, the  other  probably  to  the  Melchites,  called  the 
Church  of  Humaid  son  of  Durrah  (a  relation  on  the 
mother's  side  of  the  Caliph  Muawiyah),  who  was 
owner  of  the  street  in  which  the  church  was  situated. 
The  relations  between  Moslems  and  Christians  in 
this  place  appear  rarely  to  have  been  cordial.  It  is 
asserted  that  at  the  time  of  the  Moslem  conquest,  only 
one  Christian  family  adopted  Islam,  and  this  would 
imply  greater  tenacity  on  the  part  of  the  Damascene 
believers  than  was  displayed  by  their  co-religionists 
in  most  Oriental  cities.  The  latest  writer  on  the  his- 
tory of  Islamic  civilisation  charges  the  Uma5^ads,  in 
whose  time  Damascus  was  the  capital  of  the  Moslem 
Empire,  with  persecution  of  Christians;  and  the 
transformation  of  the  Church  of  St.  John  into  a 
mosque  is  admitted  by  Moslem  historians  to  have 
been  against  the  treaty.  These  persecutions  were  not 
dictated  by  fanaticism  on  the  part  of  the  Umayyads, 
who,  with  one  exception,  were  notoriously  lax;  but 
by  the  need  for  money  with  which  to  pay  partisans, 
their  claim  to  the  Caliphate  being  untenable  on  its 
own  merits.  This  at  least  is  the  explanation  given 
by  the  writer  quoted.     Syrians  were,  moreover,  con- 

[379] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

stantly  suspected  of  being  in  league  with  and  abetting 
the  Byzantine  emperor,  and  the  episode  of  the 
Crusades  naturally  embittered  the  relations  betweea 
the  communities,  though  Damascus  never  actually 
fell  into  Prankish  hands.  In  the  extract  dealing 
with  the  taking  of  Damascus  by  Hulagu,  it  will  be 
seen  that  in  the  year  1260  the  Christians  for  a  few 
months  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  avenging  to  some  ex- 
tent the  oppression  of  centuries,  and  how  speedily  the 
sky  clouded  again  over  them  after  that  brief  gleam 
of  sunshine.  Since  the  time  of  Ibrahim  Pasha,  when 
various  humiliations  imposed  on  Christian  visitors 
were  removed,  the  relations  have  probably  im- 
proved; yet  the  events  of  i860  showed  that  the  anti- 
Christian  feeling  was  deep,  and  among  certain  por- 
tions of  the  Moslem  population  it  might  still  be 
roused. 

The  Umayyads  in  such  anecdotes  as  are  preserved 
of  them  often  figure  as  luxurious  and  magnificent 
princes,  whence  we  should  expect  to  hear  something 
of  their  palaces,  since  wonderful  things  are  told  us  of 
those  belonging  to  the  Caliphs  of  Baghdad  and  Cairo. 
Our  curiosity  in  this  matter  is  not  adequately  grati- 
fied, though  occasionally  there  is  a  notice  to  the  effect 
that  some  mosque  or  other  edifice  occupies  part  of  the 
ground  at  one  time  covered  by  an  Umayyad  palace. 
Of  that  built  by  the  founder  of  the  dynasty,  Muawi- 
yah,  whose  reputation  was  rather  for  gluttony  and 
cunning  than  magnificence,  though  in  some  tales  he 
is  represented  as  boasting  that  he  had  enjoyed  all  that 
the  world  could  give,  we  have  an  anecdote  which  sug- 

[  380  ] 


THE   PRAISES   OF   DAMASCUS 

gests  anything  but  splendour.  When  this  prince, 
who  at  first  held  the  office  of  governor  only,  built 
himself  a  palace  of  baked  brick,  he  had  occasion  to 
receive  a  Byzantine  enjoy,  whose  opinion  he  asked 
about  the  structure.  "  The  upper  part,"  replied  the 
Greek,  "  will  do  for  birds,  and  the  lower  for  rats." 
Muawiyah  had  the  house  pulled  down  and  rebuilt  of 
stone.  It  was  purchased  afterwards  by  Abd  al- 
Malik,  the  other  great  sovereign  of  this  line,  from  a 
descendant  of  its  founder,  for  the  sum  of  40,000 
dinars  and  four  estates;  but  this  need  not  imply  that 
it  was  on  a  grand  scale,  since  it  was  the  fashion  at  the 
time  to  pay  huge  sums  for  any  dwelling  that  had  ever 
been  occupied  by  one  of  the  early  heroes  of  Islam. 
Fabulous  prices  are  recorded  as  having  been  given 
for  dwellings  of  this  sort  at  Meccah,  which  we  can- 
not believe  to  have  been  very  gorgeous.  The  list  of 
show-houses  at  Damascus  given  by  the  author  of  the 
"  Description  "  consists  almost  entirely  of  buildings 
that  enjoyed  such  a  reputation.  Part  of  the  Copper- 
smiths' Bazaar,  stretching  as  far  as  the  Bazaar  of  the 
Bootmakers,  was  said  to  have  been  the  site  of  the  resi- 
dence of  a  son  of  Utbah  Ibn  Rabi'ah,  an  eminent 
contemporary  of  the  Prophet.  Inside  the  Gate  of 
Thomas  was  the  house  of  the  conqueror  Khalid  with 
his  oratory.  The  house  of  Auf  Ibn  Malik,  another 
hero  of  the  early  days  of  Islam,  was  shown  near  the 
old  Thread-market.  Inside  the  eastern  gate  to  the 
right  was  the  house  of  Malik  Ibn  Hubairah,  Muawi- 
yah's  general,  etc. 

A  rather  more  important  mansion  was  that  of  the 

[381] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

celebrated  Hajjaj,  viceroy  of  Abd  al-Malik,  notori- 
ous in  eastern  history  for  his  ruthless  severity,  but 
celebrated  for  his  magnificence  also.  A  whole 
quarter  of  Damascus  was  called  after  his  palace,  and 
the  name  is  not  yet  obsolete;  but  no  traces  of  the 
building  have  been  discovered.  In  1237-8  the 
whole  of  this  region  was  burned  down,  and  the  re- 
mains of  the  palace,  which  had  probably  been  a  ruin 
long  before,  are  likely  to  have  perished  then. 

In  most  descriptions  of  Damascus,  whether  an- 
cient or  modern,  every  religious  building  appears  to 
be  dwarfed  by  the  Great  Umayyad  Mosque,  which 
we  shall  leave  to  the  end.  The  rulers  of  Damascus 
were  no  less  liberal  founders  of  religious  edifices 
than  were  other  Sultans  and  governors;  and  the  "  De- 
scription "  enumerates  no  fewer  than  241  mosques  for 
public  worship,  afterwards  supplemented  by  lists 
which  bring  the  number  up  to  572,  though  this  figure 
includes  some  that  were  outside  the  walls.  The 
same  work  gives  eleven  other  lists  of  buildings  in 
which  provision  was  made  for  religious  service,  un- 
less (which  is  unlikely)  the  medical  schools  were 
an  exception.  In  the  time  of  the  traveller  Ibn  Ju- 
bair — i.e.  the  late  twelfth  century — there  were  be- 
sides these  two  hospitals,  the  old  and  the  new,  of 
which  the  latter  was  probably  the  institution 
founded  by  Nur  al-din,  to  which  reference  has  al- 
ready been  made;  it  had  an  endowment  of  fifteen 
dinars  daily.  Doctors  visited  it  every  morning  to 
prescribe  for  the  patients,  of  whom  lists  were  kept. 
There  was  special  treatment  for  the  insane,  who  were 

[382] 


Ic 

^h 

lOMli   OF    SHEIK   ARSLAN,    DA.MAScLS. 


THE    PRAISES    OF    DAMASCUS 

chained.  The  medical  schools  of  the  "  Description  " 
are  all  of  a  later  period  than  the  hospitals.  The 
first  was  called  the  Dakhwari5Ayah  "  in  the  old  Ba- 
zaar of  the  Goldsmiths "  south  of  the  Great  Mosque, 
founded  in  the  year  1250  by  a  physician,  who,  for  his 
successful  treatment  of  maladies  suffered  by  the 
Ayyubid  princes,  was  given  the  title  Chief  of  the 
Physicians  of  the  Two  Zones  (Syria  and  Egypt). 
It  appears  that  a  successful  medical  career  was  a 
road  to  fortune  in  those  days  as  in  these;  this  person 
received  as  fees  for  special  cures  the  sums  of  7000 
and  12,000  dinars,  and  al-Ashraf  settled  on  him  es- 
tates which  brought  in  1500  dinars  annually,  when 
he  gave  him  the  post  of  court-physician.  The  build- 
ing left  by  him  to  the  city  as  medical  school  had  been 
his  own  house.  Two  other  houses  were  devoted  to 
the  same  object  within  the  next  sixty  years,  but  one 
of  these  was  afterwards  turned  into  a  mosque, 
whereas  the  other  went  to  ruin. 

The  traveller  Ibn  Jubair  was  greatly  struck  by 
the  monasteries  or  hospices,  of  which  the  number  at 
the  time  of  the  "  Description  "  had  risen  to  about 
twenty-nine.  The  friendly  disposition  of  the  Ayyu- 
bids  towards  the  Sufis  has  already  been  noticed;  and 
according  to  the  Spanish  visitor  these  ascetics  had 
things  very  much  their  own  way  at  Damascus. 
Their  hospices,  he  says,  are  splendidly  decorated 
palaces,  in  all  of  which  there  is  running  water,  beau- 
tifully conducted.  "  The  Sufis  are  kings  in  this  city, 
for  God  has  spared  them  the  trouble  of  worldly  em- 
ployment, has  rendered  it  possible  for  them  to  devote 

[385] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

their  minds  to  His  service,  and  has  housed  them  in 
mansions,  such  as  must  ever  remind  them  of  the  man- 
sions of  Paradise;  to  those  of  them  who  are  saved 
the  pleasures  of  both  this  world  and  the  next  have 
been  given.  Very  admirable  are  the  practices  and 
orders  of  these  brotherhoods,  especially  the  arrange- 
ment by  which  different  members  undertake  differ- 
ent departments  of  service.  Beautiful  are  their 
gatherings  to  hear  thrilling  melodies,  where  not  un- 
frequently  in  the  intensity  of  their  emotion  some  of 
them  pass  away  out  of  the  world.  The  most  won- 
derful building  belonging  to  them  is  a  palace  called 
by  them  the  Tower,  which  rises  high  in  the  air,  with 
dwellings  at  the  top,  commanding  a  glorious  view; 
it  is  half  a  mile  distant  from  the  city.  To  it  there  is 
attached  a  vast  garden,  said  to  have  been  the  pleasure 
ground  of  a  Turkish  sovereign.  One  night  he  was 
amusing  himself  by  pouring  some  of  the  wine,  which 
was  being  drunk  in  the  palace,  on  the  heads  of  Sufis 
who  passed  by;  complaint  was  made  to  Nur  al-din, 
who  did  not  rest  till  he  had  got  the  whole  place  as  a 
gift  from  its  owner,  which  he  then  proceeded  to  settle 
on  the  Sufis  in  perpetuity."  In  the  siege  of  Damas- 
cus of  the  year  1228  several  of  these  hospices  were 
pillaged  and  ruined. 

A  considerable  number  of  schools  still  exist  in 
Damascus,  but  many  edifices  which  were  originally 
designed  for  this  purpose  have  been  turned  into  pri- 
vate houses;  von  Kremer  identified  a  number  which 
had  experienced  this  change  in  the  street  which  leads 
northwards  from  Bab  al-Barid  to  the  Tomb  of  Bai- 

[386] 


THE    PRAISES   OF    DAMASCUS 

bars,  and  a  number  more  in  the  quarter  between  Suk 
Bab  al-Barid  and  Suk  Jakmak.  Still,  several  that 
are  mentioned  in  the  "  Description  "  appear  to  be  in 
existence,  and  several  have  been  built  since.  Some  of 
those  which  were  intended  to  be  for  advanced  study 
have  sunk  to  the  level  of  infant  schools.  Probably 
aspirants  after  the  higher  Moslem  education  have 
for  many  centuries  gone  to  al-Azhar  to  seek  it, 
whereas  Constantinople  attracts  students  of  another 
kind. 

Of  schools  that  receive  the  attention  of  visitors 
there  may  be  mentioned  that  of  the  heroic  Nur  al- 
din,  whose  name  occurs  in  the  history  of  Egypt  also, 
in  the  Cloth  Bazaar.  The  building  is  said  to  have 
been  originally  part  of  the  palace  of  the  Umayyad 
Hisham,  son  of  Abd  al-Malik,  who  reigned  from 
724-743.  The  prince,  Nur  al-din,  was  at  first  buried 
in  the  Citadel,  but  his  body  was  afterwards  trans- 
ferred to  this  school;  which  the  author  of  the  "  De- 
scription "  asserts  to  have  been  built  for  him  by  his 
son,  al-Salih  Isma'il,  although  it  would  appear  that 
this  is  contradicted  by  inscriptions  on  the  school  it- 
self, w^hich  name  Nur  al-din  himself  as  founder.  A 
similar  institution  is  that  called  Raihaniyyah,  a  little 
to  the  west  of  the  Nuriyyah.  Its  date  is  1 178-9;  its 
founder  was  a  eunuch  and  freedman  of  Nur  al-din, 
who  entrusted  to  his  charge  the  Citadel  and  prison 
of  Damascus,  in  which  posts  he  was  confirmed  by 
Saladin,  whose  cause  he  espoused  when  the  famous 
Sultan  took  Damascus.  An  inscription  copied  by 
M.  Sauvaire  still  records  the  lands  settled  upon  it. 

[  387  ] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

A  school  of  some  celebrity  is  the  Kaimariyyah, 
founded  1266  by  al-Kaimari,  an  Emir  who  at  the 
death  of  Turanshah  played  a  part  of  importance  in 
Syria.  He  is  said  to  have  spent  40,000  dirhems  on 
a  clock  put  up  over  the  door  of  his  school.  Von 
Kremer  describes  it  as  a  moderate-sized  building, 
with  a  stone-paved  court,  cloistered  all  round  below, 
and  with  open  corridors  above.  The  front  towards 
the  street  has  three  cupolas. 

Of  more  interest  than  these  is  the  school  of  the  Sul- 
tan Baibars,  between  the  gates  Bab  al-Faraj  and  Bab 
al-Faradis,  north  of  the  Umayyad  Mosque.  It  had 
originally  been  the  house  of  a  certain  Akiki,  of 
whom  Ayyub,  father  of  Saladin,  purchased  it;  ap- 
parently Baibars  himself  turned  it  into  a  school  and 
mausoleum,  but  some  ascribe  this  action  to  his  son 
Barakah  Khan.  The  foundations  are  said  to  have 
been  laid  on  October  12,  1277.  In  the  time  of  the 
author  of  the  "  Description  "  it  had  been  turned  into 
a  private  house. 

Between  the  library  of  Baibars  and  the  Umayyad 
Mosque  is  the  Tomb  of  Saladin,  side  by  side  with 
that  of  one  of  his  ministers.  The  "  Description  "  lo- 
cates the  tomb  of  the  great  Sultan  in  the  school  of 
al-Aziz,  west  of  the  tomb  of  al-Ashraf,  north  of  the 
School  of  Tradition  founded  by  the  "  Excellent 
Judge,"  a  man  of  great  note  of  the  time  of  Saladin, 
especially  as  stylist  and  poet,  and  the  collector  of 
a  great  library  in  Cairo.  Founded  by  al-Afdal 
(1186-1196)  it  was  finished  by  al-Aziz  of  Egypt, 
who  had  the  body  of  the  Sultan,  first  deposited  in  the 

[388] 


THE   PRAISES   OF   DAMASCUS 

Citadel,  transferred  thither.  Prayers  offered  at 
this  tomb  are,  the  author  assures  us,  answered:  "  the 
fact  has  been  recounted  by  the  greatest  and  most  dis- 
tinguished doctors,  and  admits  of  no  doubt."  An 
epitaph  by  the  "  Excellent  Judge  "  was  inscribed  on 
the  grave,  in  which  the  wish  was  expressed  that  after 
so  many  cities  had  opened  their  gates  to  him,  Para- 
dise might  do  the  same. 

Damascus  is  otherwise  famous  for  harbouring  the 
ashes  of  numerous  persons  of  importance;  the  grave- 
yard of  the  Little  Gate  is  said  to  contain  those  of 
Bilal,  the  Prophet's  Mueddin,  an  important  person 
at  the  beginning  of  Islam,  and  two  of  the  Prophet's 
wives.  Outside  the  gate  of  the  Jordan  Mosque 
there  is,  or  used  to  be,  a  pile  of  stones  marking  where 
the  grave  of  the  Caliph  Yazid  once  stood.  The 
stones  were  thrown  by  Persian  visitors,  with  a  view 
of  expressing  their  abhorrence  of  the  worst  of  the 
Uma}^ads — the  Caliph  under  whom  occurred  the 
affair  of  Kerbela,  when  Husain,  the  Prophet's 
grandson,  was  killed,  to  be  mourned,  wherever 
Shiites  are  to  be  found,  on  the  tenth  of  the  month 
Muharram. 

Most  of  the  mausoleums  described  in  the  work 
translated  by  M.  Sauvaire  belong  to  sovereigns  and 
other  persons  of  eminence  not  later  than  the  Ayyubid 
period.  The  author  dwells  especially  on  those 
which  contain  the  ashes  of  the  three  princes,  al-Adil, 
al-Ashraf  and  al-Kamil,  whose  names  all  figure  in 
the  history  of  Egypt.  An  interesting  personage  also 
occurring  in  this  list  is  Ismat  al-din  Khatun,  wife 

[391  ] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

of  Nur  al-din  and  afterwards  of  Saladin,  highly 
esteemed  for  her  piety  and  virtue,  "  who  did  not  act 
without  a  good  intention."  She  founded  in  her  hus- 
bands' city  a  mosque,  which  was  afterwards  turned 
into  a  private  dwelling,  a  hospice,  and  a  mausoleum 
for  herself  on  the  Yazid  Canal  in  the  Salihiyyah, 
which  some  150  years  after  her  death  was  turned 
into  a  mosque,  and  after  a  somewhat  longer  period 
had  elapsed  was,  in  the  year  1568,  yet  further  en- 
larged and  endowed. 

Leaving  the  abodes  of  the  dead  for  those  of  the 
living,  we  notice  what  has  often  been  observed,  that 
the  outside  of  the  houses  is  rarely  of  great  magni- 
ficence. It  is  inside  that  the  architects  display  their 
skill  and  the  wealthy  their  riches.  The  rooms  usu- 
ally open  out  into  a  court  and  are  disconnected. 
This  practice  is  said  to  go  back  to  pre-Islamic  times. 
In  the  two  houses  which  are  usually  exhibited  to 
visitors  there  is  an  abundance  of  marbles  and  mo- 
saics, with  enamelled  tiles  and  profusion  of  gold  and 
colouring. 

Two  other  classes  of  buildings  to  which  the  visi- 
tor may  be  taken  are  the  Baths,  of  which  that  called 
the  Queen's  Bath  is  perhaps  the  finest,  and  the 
Khans,  or  storehouses  for  merchandise,  among  which' 
that  which  bears  the  name  of  As'ad  Pasha  is  pre- 
eminent. It  is  supported  on  four  piers  with  nine 
domes  above  them. 

Of  the  number  of  actual  mosques  given  above  from 
the  "  Description,"  many  must  have  become  disused 
or  been  demolished  before  the  seventeenth  century, 

[392] 


THE    PRAISES   OF   DAMASCUS 

when  the  figure  was  150.  During  Ibrahim  Pasha's 
government  some  further  transformation  of  mosques 
took  place.  That  of  Yelbogha  was  turned  into  a  bis- 
cuit-factory, and  that  of  Tengiz  into  barracks,  and 
then  into  a  military  college.  The  existing  mosques 
that  attract  the  notice  of  travellers  are  chiefly  the  fol- 
lowing: that  of  Sinan  Pasha  (near  the  Jabiyah 
Gate),  the  minaret  of  which  is  conspicuous  every- 
where for  the  highly-glazed  green  tiles  with  which  it 
is  covered ;  the  interior  is  decorated  with  marble  col- 
umns and  a  marble  pavement.  It  was  originally,  we 
are  told,  called  The  Onion  Mosque.  In  the  year 
1585,  when  Sinan  Pasha  was  appointed  governor  of 
Damascus,  he  rebuilt  it  and  made  it  suitable  for  Fri- 
day worship.  Though  the  governorship  of  this 
Pasha  lasted  only  six  months,  the  building  of  his 
Mosque  appears  to  have  taken — probably  intermit- 
tently— some  years,  since  1590  is  given  as  the  date  of 
its  completion.  To  about  the  same  period  belongs 
the  Derwishiyyah  Mosque,  which  also  was  a  recon- 
struction of  a  similar  building  on  a  smaller  scale,  or- 
dered by  Derwish  Pasha,  governor  from  1571  to 
1574.  Somewhat  earlier  is  the  Mosque  of  the  Sultan 
Selim  in  the  Salihiyyah.  It  contains  the  tomb  of  the 
greatest  of  the  Sufi  writers,  Ibn  Arabi,  whose  works 
have  often  been  condemned  for  heresy,  but  neverthe- 
less whose  reputation  for  sanctity  perhaps  surpasses 
that  of  any  other  Moslem  saint.  The  mosque  was 
built  by  the  Sultan  in  the  years  15 17  and  15 18  out  of 
respect  for  the  memory  of  the  saint.  Previously,  we 
are  told,  the  spot  had  been  marked  by  a  ruined  bath 

[393] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

and  a  pile  of  refuse.  The  Sultan  spent  "  Incalcu- 
lable sums "  upon  it,  and  provided  it  with  four 
mueddins  and  thirty  readers  of  the  Koran. 

Another  mosque  built  by  an  Ottoman  Sultan  is 
that  called  after  Sulaiman,  who  founded  it  in  1554, 
together  with  the  Tekiyyeh,  or  hospice,  which  also 
bears  his  name.  They  are  situated  on  the  site  of  the 
famous  palace  of  the  Sultan  Baibars  in  the  "  Green 
Meidan."  The  materials  which  belonged  to  the 
palace  were  employed  again  for  these  buildings,  the 
erection  of  which  took  six  years.  The  author  of  the 
supplement  to  the  "  Description  "  declares  the  mar- 
ble, the  cupolas,  and  the  leaden  work  of  the  buildings 
to  be  such  as  "  stupefy  the  spectator  while  rejoicing 
his  heart."  Special  attention  is  called  to  the  basin  In 
the  middle  of  the  court,  to  the  pulpit  and  the  mihrab. 
Only  the  writer  complains  that  in  accordance  with  a 
tradition  current  among  the  architects  the  minarets 
were  placed  east  and  west,  instead  of  north  and  south, 
whence  the  area  in  which  the  call  to  prayer  would  be 
heard  was  considerably  reduced.  The  architect  was 
"  the  most  Incomparable  of  great  geniuses,  the  noblest 
of  the  children  of  Persia,  our  master  Mulla  Agha." 
He  was  also  set  in  charge  of  the  administration,  and 
followed,  we  are  told,  the  unusual  plan  of  giving  the 
best  places  to  those  who  injured  him,  and  the  worst 
to  those  who  tried  to  do  him  a  kindness. 

We  conclude  with  the  great  Umayyad  Mosqud 
This  is  the  grandest  of  all  Mohammedan  buildings 
and  Arabic  writers  give  full  rein  to  their  powers  of 
description  in  recounting  its  magnificence  and  the 

[  394  ] 


THE   PRAISES   OF   DAMASCUS 

riches  lavished  upon  its  erection  by  El-Walid;  the 
whole  revenue  of  Syria  for  seven  years,  not  counting 
eighteen  shiploads  of  gold  and  silver  from  Cyprus 
and  many  rich  gifts  of  precious  stones.  These  latter 
enriched  the  mihrab  and  minbar  but,  with  the  600 
golden  lamps  suspended  by  chains  of  the  like  precious 
metal,  were  soon  diverted  to  other  uses  by  a  following 
Caliph.  The  leaden  roof  of  the  mosque  is  described 
in  as  high  terms  of  admiration  as  the  gold  so  lavishly 
spread  on  the  interior.  Every  town  had  to  furnish 
its  quota,  but  so  difficult  was  it  to  obtain  sufficient  that 
tombs  were  rifled.  From  one  sarcophagus  the  body 
was  taken  from  its  leaden  shell  and  laid  on  the 
ground;  the  head  fell  into  a  ravine  and  blood  burst 
from  the  mouth.  Terror-struck,  the  bystanders 
made  inquiry,  till  at  last  they  were  told,  "  It  is  the 
tomb  of  King  Talut  (Saul)."  A  prettier  story  is 
that  of  a  woman  who  refused  to  sell  some  lead, 
needed  to  complete  one  corner,  save  weight  for 
weight  in  gold.  The  Caliph  wrote  that  her  demand 
should  be  complied  with,  but  then  the  woman  said, 
"It  is  my  gift  to  the  mosque."  "  You  were  too 
avaricious  to  sell  save  weight  for  weight,  and  now 
do  you  offer  a  gift?"  "I  acted  thus  believing  that 
your  lord  played  the  tyrant  and  exacted  forced 
labour.  Now  that  I  see  he  pays  punctually  and 
weight  for  weight,  I  acknowledge  that  in  this  matter 
he  wrongs  no  one."  The  commissioner  reported 
these  words  and  the  Caliph  commanded  that  these 
sheets  of  lead  should  be  marked  "  For  Allah";  this 
was  done  by  means  of  a  mould. 

[395] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

To  return  to  figures,  there  was  praying  space  for 
20,000  men;  as  for  the  money  expended,  one  item, 
viz.,  the  cost  of  the  cabbages  eaten  by  the  workmen 
is  said  to  have  been  6000  dinars  (£2500).  When 
the  wondrous  work  was  finished,  the  Caliph  would 
not  look  at  the  accounts  brought  to  him  on  eighteen 
laden  mules,  but  ordered  that  they  should  be  burnt 
and  thus  addressed  the  crowd:  "  Men  of  Damascus, 
you  possess  four  glories  above  other  people;  you  are 
proud  of  your  water,  your  air,  your  fruits,  your  baths ; 
your  mosque  shall  be  your  fifth  glory." 

Like  some  other  famous  places  of  worship,  this 
mosque  was  once  the  site  of  a  heathen  temple,  por- 
tions of  which  can  be  traced  in  the  porticos.  Theo- 
dosius  built  a  church  there  (a.D.  379)  and  dedicated 
it  to  St.  John  the  Baptist,  to  whom  there  is  still  an 
imposing  shrine.  When  the  Moslems  entered  Da- 
mascus (a.D.  635),  by  an  amicable  arrangement,  the 
building  was  shared  between  Christians  and  Mo- 
hammedans, but  in  A.D.  708  El-Walid,  sixth  of  the 
Umayyads,  drove  the  Christians  out,  confirming 
them,  however,  in  the  possession  of  other  churches. 
But  to  this  day  one  of  the  three  minarets  is  called  by 
the  name  of  Isa  (Jesus),  and  above  a  gate,  long  since 
closed,  is  the  inscription,  "Thy  kingdom,  O  Christ, 
is  an  everlasting  kingdom,  and  Thy  dominion  en- 
dureth  throughout  all  generations." 

El-Walid  summoned  a  fabulous  number  of  crafts- 
men (one  writer  says  200,  another  prefixes  one  and 
makes  it  1200,  a  third  adds  a  nought  and  reckons 
12,000)    from  Constantinople,  and  his  magnificent 

[396] 


THE    PRAISES    OF    DAMASCUS 

mosque  was,  like  other  early  Moslem  edifices,  en- 
tirely Byzantine  in  st^ie  and  rich  with  rare  marbles 
and  fine  mosaics;  while  in  accordance  with  another 
Moslem  custom,  antique  columns  were  plundered 
from  many  Syrian  towns.  Many  of  these  remain  in 
the  interior,  but  most  of  those  described  by  the  Arab 
geographer  Mukkadisi  as  sustaining  the  arcade 
round  the  great  court,  have  disappeared  and  piers 
covered  with  plaster  have  taken  tlieir  place.  It  is 
thought,  however,  that  many  columns  remain  within 
these  piers  of  masonr}-.  The  mosaics  represented 
Meccah,  Medinah  and  Jerusalem  and  other  princi- 
pal towns  of  the  world,  amid  groves  of  orange  and 
palm,  while  long  inscribed  scrolls  and  wreaths  of 
foliage  filled  tlie  interspaces;  of  these,  fragments 
can  still  be  traced,  and  more  are  probably  hidden 
under  plaster  and  whitewash. 

The  two  principal  gates  are  at  the  west  and  east, 
they  are  named  Bab-el-Barid  (Gate  of  the  Post)  and 
Bab  Jairun  after  a  mythical  conqueror.  They  had 
triple  portals  closed  with  bronze-covered  doors:  one 
of  these  which  remains  at  the  East  Gate  (Bab 
Jairun)  bears  a  central  band  of  inscription  witli  the 
name  of  the  Sultan  Abd  el-Aziz,  son  of  Barkuk 
(1405)  and  a  chalice,  a  device  of  the  Mamelukes. 
The  gates  and  adjoining  porticos  have  retained  more 
ancient  work,  both  of  construction  and  of  ornament, 
such  as  inlay  of  beautiful  coloured  marble,  tl:an  the 
rest  of  the  building. 

There  were  originally  towers  at  tlie  four  corners, 
those  at  the  south  side  remain :  the  Madana,  Gharbiy- 

[  309  ] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND  DAMASCUS 

yah  (Western  Minaret)  formerly  inhabited  by 
anchorites,  also  named  after  Kaietbai;  opposite  it, 
i.e.,  at  the  southeast  angle,  is  the  Madanat  Isa  (Min- 
aret of  Jesus)  or  the  White  Minaret.  On  the  north 
side,  rather  more  than  a  third  from  the  east  angle, 
stands  the  Madanat  al-Arus  (Minaret  of  the  Bride)  ; 
this  was  not  as  the  other  towers,  originally  Byzantine, 
but  was  built  by  al-Walid. 

The  Great  Court  is  surrounded  on  three  sides  by 
spacious  corridors,  now  resting  on  piers,  with  round 
arches;  the  upper  storey  retains  at  the  east  double 
arches  separated  by  a  small  column;  these  have  been 
replaced  elsewhere  by  commonplace  narrow  win- 
dows. 

Within  the  Court  stand  three  small  and  beautiful 
cupolas,  at  the  west  the  Kubbat  el-Khaznah  (Dome 
of  the  Treasury),  for  the  mosque  had  great  endow- 
ments. This  building  is,  however,  no  longer  used, 
but  is  filled  with  ancient  MSS.  jealously  kept  from 
view;  it  was  only  as  a  special  favour  to  the  Emperor 
Wilhelm  that  German  scholars  were  allowed  to 
handle  them,  and  for  a  specified  time  only.  The 
Kubbat  el-Naufarah,  in  the  centre  of  the  court,  has 
a  fountain  for  ablutions;  it  is  also  called  Kafs  el-Ma 
(the  Water  Cage) ,  because  a  spout  rises  from  a  grat- 
ing so  that  people  drink  from  the  side.  The  building 
stands  on  arches  upheld  by  four  thick  and  as  many 
slender  columns,  an  upper  room  has  wooden  supports 
only  and  a  flattish  broad  leaden  roof  with  a  little 
cupola  in  the  middle.  The  third,  Kubbat  el-Sa'at 
(Dome  of  the  Hours)  stands  at  the  east  of  the  Court. 

[400] 


THE    PRAISES    OF    DAMASCUS 

The  whole  of  the  south  side  of  the  Court  is  occu- 
pied by  the  mosque,  with  its  three  great  aisles  divided 
by  columns  twenty-three  feet  high;  its  interior  mea- 
surements are  429  feet  by  124.  The  whole  floor  is 
covered  by  more  carpets  than  we  could  count,  about 
eight  abreast,  and  many  of  them  fine.  The  clere- 
story has  round  arches.  The  chief  entrance  is  in  the 
middle  of  the  north  side,  i.e.,  from  the  Court;  it  leads 
under  wide  transepts  to  the  mihrab  and  chief  pulpit 
in  the  southern  wall;  there  are  three  other  mihrabs 
for  the  other  Schools  of  Law.  Over  the  centre, 
where  the  transepts  cross  the  aisles,  is  the  great  dome,' 
nearly  fifty  feet  in  diameter  and  above  120  in  height; 
it  is  called  Kubbat  al-Nasr  (the  Vulture  Dome)  it- 
self counting  as  the  head,  the  aisle  below  as  the  breast 
and  the  lofty  transept  roofs,  high  above  the  other 
roofs,  being  likened  to  outspread  wings.  "  From 
whatever  quarter  you  approach  the  city,  you  see  the 
dome  high  above  all  else  as  though  suspended  in  the 


air." 


The  Mosque  has  suffered  repeatedly  from  fires, 
especially  in  1069,  owing  to  riots  between  the  Fati- 
mides  and  Shiahs;  in  1400,  when  Timur-Lenk  took 
the  town;  lastly,  and  very  severely,  in  1894,  since 
when  plaster  and  whitewash  have  taken  the  place  of 
the  gold  and  coloured  brilliance  of  old. 


[401] 


SCENES   FROM   THE   HISTORY   OF   DAMASCUS 

IT  has  been  observed  with  justice  that  Da- 
mascus has  prospered  in  a  variety  of  con- 
ditions,  as  the   capital  of  a  state,   more 
frequently  as  the  capital  of  a  province, 
sometimes  as  a  provincial  town.     It  never  as  a  me- 
tropolis  grew   to    the   vast   dimensions  of  Babylon 
or  Baghdad;  on  the  other  hand  it  never  suffered 
very  seriously  by  the  removal  of  the  court.     The 
periods  when  it  has  been  the  chief  city  of  a  sov- 
ereign state  have  not  been  many.     From  the  Old 
Testament   we  learn  of  a  kingdom  of  Aram   with 
Damascus  for  its  capital,  which  was  contemporary 
with  the  northern  Israelitish  kingdom,  and  perished 
with  it;  and  we  hear  incidentally  of  a  temple  of  Rim- 
mon,  a  god  whose  name  appears  to  show  Assyrian 
affinities;  we  learn  also  the  names  of  a  few  kings,  and 
are  amazed  that  the  Israelitish  prophets  should  in- 
terfere in  the  matter  of  their  appointment.     Little  is 
heard  of  the  place  during  the  period  when  Persia 
dominated  the  nearer  East,  and  when  after  the  fall  of 
that  Empire  a  Greek  kingdom  of  Syria  was  set  up, 
Damascus  was  superseded  after  a  time  by  a  new  capi- 
tal Antioch.     At  times  before  and  after  the  com- 

[  402  ] 


SCENES  FROM  HISTORY  OF  DAMASCUS 

mencement  of  Christianity  it  was  occupied  by  Na- 
bataean  rulers,  some  of  whom  are  known  to  us  by  in- 
scriptions in  Arabia.  Christianity  appears  to  have 
made  way  in  the  city  at  an  early  date,  and  probably 
long  subsisted  by  the  side  of  a  mixture  of  Greek  and 
Nabataean  cults.  A  fresh  era  in  its  history  was  con- 
stituted by  the  Mohammedan  conquest,  especially 
when  the  founder  of  the  Umayyad  dynasty  (661-750) 
made  it  the  capital  of  an  empire  that  steadily  grew 
in  extent.  Since  the  termination  of  that  period  it  has 
not  been  a  metropolis,  for  even  such  sovereigns  as 
Nur  al-din  acknowledged  the  suzerainty  of  the 
Caliph  of  Baghdad,  while  other  rulers  have  been 
commissioned  by  the  Sultans  reigning  in  Cairo  and 
Constantinople.  Numerous  rebellions  have  indeed 
been  commenced  at  the  Syrian  capital,  but  their  suc- 
cess has  usually  been  temporary,  and  the  independ- 
ence of  Syria  rarely  their  ultimate  object. 

In  Mohammedan  times  it  has  sometimes,  but  not 
always,  been  the  chief  city  of  Syria.  Its  rival  has 
been  Aleppo,  which  it  displaced  in  the  year  13 12,  by 
command  of  the  Sultan  Nasir,  anxious  to  gratify  the 
Emir  Tengiz,  a  faithful  partisan,  whose  daughter  the 
Sultan  married.  When  Tengiz  came  to  Cairo  to  be 
present  when  his  grandchild  was  born,  and  both  spent 
and  received  fabulous  sums,  he  thankfully  prostrated 
himself  when  the  child  proved  to  be  a  girl:  had  it 
been  a  boy,  he  would  have  thought  his  luck  too  greati 
His  distrust  of  fortune  was  justified;  for,  ere  a  year 
was  over,  the  Sultan's  face  changed  towards  him,  and 
he  was  summoned  from  Damascus,  imprisoned  and 

[405] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

executed.  The  reason  for  this  proceeding  is  un- 
known, but  is  said  to  have  been  the  Sultan's  resent- 
ment at  his  harshness  towards  the  Christians  of  Da- 
mascus, who  had  been  charged  with  incendiarism. 

In  1366  Aleppo  was  again  given  precedence  over 
Damascus,  and  this  relation  appears  to  have  lasted 
until  Turkish  times. 

Imperfect  as  is  the  record  of  Damascene  history, 
the  city  has  more  than  one  historian,  and  indeed  one 
of  the  most  frequently  cited  monuments  of  Arabic 
literature  is  the  "  History  of  Damascus,"  by  Ibn 
Asakir,  filling  some  sixty  volumes,  but  occupied  for 
the  most  part  with  biographies  of  persons  who  at  any 
time  in  their  lives  had  any  connection  with  the  city. 
Thus  a  whole  volume  is  devoted  to  the  first  Caliph, 
who  may  perhaps  have  visited  it  on  a  trading  expedi- 
tion. This  author  lived  in  the  sixth  century  of  Islam, 
and  many  exciting  scenes  have  taken  place  in  the  city 
since  his  time.  These  have  their  historians,  but  the 
centre  of  interest  in  the  Islamic  world  has  usually 
been  elsewhere.  Syrian  history  is  either  Egyptian 
history  or  Turkish  history:  those  who  write  it  are 
more  concerned  with  the  succession  of  Sultans  at  the 
capital  than  with  that  of  governors  in  the  provinces. 

Of  the  scenes  that  have  been  enacted  in  Damascus 
four  of  special  interest  have  been  selected  for  descrip- 
tion: one,  the  taking  of  the  city  by  the  first  Moslem 
conquerors,  as  told  by  the  most  trustworthy  of  Mos- 
lem chroniclers,  and  also  as  told  in  one  of  the 
romances  which  were  inspired  by  the  exploits  of  those 
who  had  to  repel  the  Crusaders;  another  the  brief 

[406] 


SCENES  FROM  HISTORY  OF  DAMASCUS 

period  of  sunshine  enjoyed  by  the  Christians  at  the 
time  of  the  first  Mongol  conquest;  and  the  third  the 
destruction  of  the  city  by  the  terrible  Timur.  The 
last  occasion  on  which  Damascus  was  the  focus  of 
general  attention,  the  massacre  of  i860,  is  told  after 
an  anonymous  Arabic  author;  it  has  also,  it  may  be 
observed,  been  portrayed  with  remarkable  skill  by  the 
author  of  the  admirable  novel  "  Sa'id  the  Fisher- 
man," in  which  Oriental  thought  and  manners  are  de- 
lineated with  an  accuracy  rarely  to  be  found  in  either 
history  or  fiction. 

CAPTURE  OF  DAMASCUS  BY  THE  MOSLEMS 
A.  D.  634  (a.  H.  13)  'After  Tabari 

When  outposts  have  been  despatched  to  guard  the 
roads  between  Damascus  and  Emesa,  and  Damascus 
and  Palestine,  the  city  was  itself  invested,  where  the 
governor  was  Nastus,  son  of  Nastus.  Different  de- 
tachments of  Moslems  were  posted  at  different 
quarters;  their  commanders  being  Abu  Ubaidah, 
Amr  and  Yazid.  Heraclius  was  at  the  time  in 
Emesa,  but  steps  had  been  taken  to  deal  with 
relief  coming  thence.  The  place  was  besieged  some 
seventy  nights,  during  which  various  assaults  were 
made,  and  engines  made  to  play  on  the  walls,  within 
which  the  inhabitants  were  entrenched,  expecting 
relief  from  Heraclius,  who  was  so  near,  and  to 
whom  they  had  sent  for  help.  The  cavalry 
despatched  by  the  Emperor  in  answer  to  this  ap- 

[407] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

peal  were  intercepted  by  Dhu'  1-Kula,  who  had 
been  stationed  at  a  day's  journey  from  Damascus  on 
the  Emesa  road,  and  whose  camp  the  relief  forces 
from  Heraclius  were  compelled  to  besiege.  When 
the  Damascenes  became  convinced  that  no  help 
would  arrive,  they  became  despondent  and  down- 
hearted, while  the  Moslems  were  all  the  more  eager 
to  take  the  place.  At  first  the  inhabitants  had  sup- 
posed that  this  was  an  ordinary  raid,  and  that  when 
the  cold  weather  came  on,  the  besiegers  would  with- 
draw; and  now  the  Pleiads  fell,  and  the  besiegers 
still  remained.  This  made  the  Damascenes  despair, 
and  the  troops  regretted  that  they  had  shut  them- 
selves up  in  the  city.  Now  it  so  happened  that  a 
child  was  born  to  the  Patrician  who  was  governor 
of  Damascus.  He,  in  consequence,  gave  a  banquet, 
and  in  consequence  of  the  feasting  the  soldiers 
neglected  their  stations.  None  of  the  Moslems  per- 
ceived this  except  Khalid,  who  neither  took  nor 
allowed  others  any  rest,  nor  suffered  anything  that 
was  going  on  in  the  town  to  escape  him.  Keen  of 
vision,  he  was  always  attentive  to  that  on  which  he 
was  engaged.  He  had  prepared  a  set  of  rope- 
ladders  with  nooses.  When  evening  was  come,  he 
with  a  picked  party  started  out,  taking  the  lead  him- 
self, with  al-Ka'ka,  son  of  Amr,  and  Madh'ur,  son  of 
Adi,  and  some  other  men  of  the  same  stamp,  who  had 
served  him  on  similar  enterprises  before.  Their  in- 
structions to  their  followers  were  to  wait  until  they 
heard  the  cry,  Allah  Akbar  (God  is  greatest!)  from 
the  walls,   when   they  should   make   for  the   gate. 

[408] 


(i)    SYRIAN  TILi:,  OV    I  1 1 1'.   W  lllth  Cl'N  |•L'K^■,  I'RO.M   A   I)  AM  \,S(.  IS  .MOsgi'K. 
(2)    SYRIAN  TILE,  XVlth  OR  WIIili  CICNTUKY,  FROM  A  DAMASCUS  MOSQUE. 


SCENES  FROM  HISTORY  OF  DAMASCUS 

When  Khalid  had  come  to  the  gate  opposite  which  he 
was  stationed,  he  and  his  picked  men,  having  on  their 
backs  the  inflated  skins  with  which  they  had  crossed 
the  ditch,  threw  their  nooses  at  the  battlements;  and 
when  two  had  caught,  al-Ka'ka  and  Madh'ur  climbed 
up,  whereupon  they  proceeded  to  fix  all  the  other 
rope-ladders  to  the  battlements.  The  place  they  were 
storming  was  one  of  the  best  fortified  in  Damascus, 
having  the  deepest  water  in  front  of  it,  and  being 
most  difficult  to  approach.  However,  they  suc- 
ceeded in  ascending  it,  and  every  one  of  their  party 
either  climbed  up  the  wall,  or  drew  near  to  the  gate. 
Having  reached  the  top  of  the  wall  Khalid  let  his 
comrades  down,  and  descended  himself,  after  leaving 
a  party  to  guard  the  ascent  for  such  as  should  follow: 
those  on  the  top  of  the  wall  then  raised  the  cry,  Allah 
Akbar.  The  Moslems  outside  advanced  to  the  gate, 
some  of  them,  however,  making  for  the  rope-ladders; 
Khalid  meanwhile  had  got  to  the  gate,  where  he 
slew  the  warders.  There  rose  a  great  uproar  in  the 
city,  and  the  soldiers  rushed  to  their  stations,  not 
knowing  w^hat  was  the  matter;  and  while  each  party 
was  concerned  with  its  own  part  of  the  wall,  Khalid 
and  his  followers  smashed  the  bolts  of  the  gate  with 
their  swords,  and  let  the  Moslems  in.  They  pro- 
ceeded to  slay  all  the  soldiers  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Khalid's  gate,  and  when  Khalid  had  thus  stormed 
his  portion  of  the  city,  such  as  escaped  ran  to  the 
gates  where  other  detachments  of  the  Moslem  army 
had  been  stationed.  These  had  repeatedly  offered 
terms  to  the  inhabitants  which  had  been  refused;  and 

[411] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

now  to  their  surprise  the  inhabitants  themselves  were 
offering  terms  of  capitulation,  which  the  Moslems 
accepted.  The  gates  were  then  opened  to  these  other 
detachments,  whom  the  inhabitants  begged  to  enter 
and  protect  them  from  those  who  were  coming  in  by 
Khalid's  gate.  Thus  the  other  detachment  entered 
by  treaty,  while  Khalid  took  his  part  by  storm; 
Khalid  and  the  other  commanders  met  in  the  middle 
of  the  city,  the  first  plundering  and  massacring,  the 
second  quieting  disturbance  and  preserving  order. 
Khalid's  portion  was  then  brought  within  the  terms 
of  the  treaty.  The  treaty  was  that  all  property, 
landed  and  coined,  should  be  equally  divided  be- 
tween the  inhabitants  and  the  Moslems;  and  a  dinar 
was  demanded  per  head  of  the  population.  When 
the  spoil  was  divided,  Khalid's  troops  only  shared 
like  the  others. 

THE  TAKING  OF  DAMASCUS  BY  THE  MOSLEMS 

'According  to  the  Arabic  romance  called  WakidVs 
Conquest  of  Syria 

Abu  Ubaidah  had  stationed  his  captains  at  the 
various  gates  of  Damascus;  sorties  and  battles  took 
place  at  each  one  of  them  except  the  Gate  of  St. 
Mark,  which  was  never  opened  for  this  purpose,  and 
so  was  afterwards  called  the  Gate  of  Safety  or  Peace. 
Damascus  was  under  the  command  of  Thomas, 
son-in-law  of  the  Emperor  Heraclius.  [This  Thomas 
is    represented    as    a   brave   man;    but    in    one    of 

[412] 


SCENES  FROM  HISTORY  OF  DAMASCUS 

the  sorties  he  loses  the  Great  Cross,  and  is  shot 
in  the  eye  by  Umm  Aban,  daughter  of  Utbah, 
whose  husband  he  had  killed.  The  arrow  cannot 
afterwards  be  got  out,  and  the  end  has  to  be 
sawn  off.  This  wound  only  infuriates  Thomas,  who 
orders  a  night  sortie.  The  Christians  issue  from  the 
gates,  and  the  Jews  help  them  by  discharging  missiles 
from  the  battlements.  Khalid,  whose  business  it  has 
been  to  guard  the  women  and  children,  is  so  alarmed 
by  this  night  attack,  that  he  leaves  his  camp  and 
rushes  unarmed  to  the  fray  at  the  head  of  400  horse. 
A  terrible  duel  takes  place,  outside  the  Gate  of 
Thomas,  between  Thomas  himself  and  the  Moslem 
commander  Shurahbil,  once  the  Prophet's  secretary. 
Umm  Aban  tries  to  help  the  latter,  as  before,  with 
her  arrows,  but  at  last  she  is  taken  captive,  and  Shu- 
rahbil's  sword  is  broken.  Thomas  is  about  to  take 
him  prisoner  also,  when  the  horsemen  come  up  in 
time  and  rescue  both  captives.  The  result  of  the 
sortie  is  in  general  so  disastrous  to  the  "  Greeks,"  that 
when  the  gates  are  once  more  closed,  a  deputation 
approaches  Thomas,  telling  him  that  if  he  will  not 
make  terms  with  the  enemy  they  will  without  him, 
and  he  begs  for  time  to  send  word  to  the  Emperor.] 
The  letter  was  written  and  sealed  and  sent  off  be- 
fore morning,  but  when  morning  came  Khalid 
ordered  a  renewed  assault,  and  refused  to  give  the 
Damascenes  a  moment's  truce  for  deliberation. 
Worn  out  with  the  siege  and  waiting  for  the  answer 
of  the  Emperor,  the  chief  people  at  last  assembled, 
and  said  to  each  other,  *'  Friends,  we  cannot  endure 

[413] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

any  longer  what  the  Moslems  are  doing  to  us;  if  we 
fight  against  them,  they  are  always  victorious, 
whereas  if  we  refrain  from  fighting  and  shut  our- 
selves up  in  the  city  we  shall  be  ruined  by  the  siege. 
Let  us  no  longer  be  obstinate,  but  rather  ask  peace  of 
them  on  their  own  terms."  Then  there  rose  up  an  old 
Greek,  who  had  read  the  Ancient  Books  and  pond- 
ered on  them,  and  said:  "  Friends,  I  am  certain  that 
if  the  king  were  to  come  with  all  his  forces  he  could 
not  raise  the  siege;  for  I  have  read  in  the  Books  that 
their  founder  Mohammed  is  the  Seal  of  the  Prophets 
and  the  Prince  of  the  Apostles,  and  that  his  religion 
is  bound  to  triumph  over  every  other.  Let  us,  there- 
fore, abandon  all  vain  hopes  and  fancies  and  give  the 
Moslems  the  terms  they  demand;  that  is  our  best 
course."  When  the  people  heard  this  utterance, 
they  took  the  old  man's  side,  owing  to  the  respect 
in  which  he  was  held  and  to  his  knowledge  of 
the  records  and  the  stories  of  wars.  So  they  asked 
him  how  they  should  set  about  it.  "  You  are  to 
know,"  he  replied,  "  that  the  commander  at  the  east- 
ern gate  is  a  shedder  of  blood  [meaning  Khalid,  son 
of  al-Walid].  If,  therefore,  you  wish  hostilities  to 
cease,  you  had  best  go  to  the  commander  at  Bab  al- 
Jabiyah  [meaning  Abu  Ubaidah]."  They  approved 
his  suggestion;  and,  when  night  came  on,  they  went 
in  a  body  to  Bab  al-Jabiyah,  and  one  of  them,  who 
was  acquainted  with  Arabic,  cried  out  in  a  loud 
voice,  "  Ye  Arabs,  have  we  a  safe-conduct  that  we 
may  come  down  unto  you  and  speak  with  your  com- 
mander, that  we  may  make  a  treaty  of  peace?  " 

[414] 


SCENES  FROM  HISTORY  OF  DAMASCUS 

Now  Abu  Ubaldah  had  sent  some  of  his  soldiers 
to  keep  watch  near  the  gate,  fearing  a  surprise  like 
that  which  had  taken  place  on  a  previous  night.  The 
party  sent  that  night  were  Dausites,  commanded  by 
Amir,  son  of  Tufail.  "  While  we  were  seated  In 
our  places,"  said  Abu  Hurairah,  a  member  of  the 
tribe,  "  we  heard  the  people  shouting.  I  immedi- 
ately rushed  to  Abu  Ubaidah  and  gave  him  the  good 
news,  saying  to  him, '  There  is  a  chance  now  that  God 
may  relieve  the  Moslems  of  their  fatigue.'  My  mes- 
sage cheered  him,  and  he  bade  me  go  and  tell  the 
Romans  that  they  should  be  safe  till  they  had  got 
back  to  their  city.  So  I  went  and  called  to  them 
that  they  might  come  down  without  harm.  They 
asked  me  which  of  Mohammed's  followers  I  was, 
and  whether  I  could  be  trusted?  I  replied  that  I  was 
Abu  Hurairah,  a  companion  of  the  Prophet,  and 
that  treachery  was  not  our  custom.  '  Why,'  I  said, 
'  if  one  of  our  slaves  were  to  give  a  guarantee  of 
security,  we  should  respect  it;  since  God  says,  "  Keep 
promises,  for  a  promise  is  to  be  claimed."  The  Arabs 
were  always  celebrated  for  good  faith  in  the  times 
of  paganism;  much  more  then  when  God  has  given 
them  Mohammed  for  a  guide.'  " 

So  the  Greeks  descended  and  opened  the  gate. 
Those  that  came  out  were  a  hundred  in  number,  men 
of  note,  priests  and  doctors  of  theology.  When  they 
came  near  Abu  Ubaidah's  camp,  the  Moslems 
hastened,  and  divested  them  of  their  belts  (this 
zonarion  was  part  of  the  Christian  costume  in  Mos- 
lem countries)   and  crosses,  when  they  were  led  to 

[415] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

the  tent  of  Abu  Ubaidah,  who  bade  them  welcome, 
rose  up  to  greet  them,  and  bade  them  be  seated. 
Mohammed,  he  observed,  bade  us  treat  with  honour 
visitors  who  were  honoured  in  their  own  country. 
The  subject  of  peace  was  then  started.  "  We  wish 
you,"  they  said,  "  to  leave  us  our  churches,  and  not 
to  turn  us  out  of  them;  these  being  the  Church  of  St. 
John  (now  the  Mosque),  the  Church  of  St.  Mary, 
of  Ananias,  of  St.  Paul,  of  al-Miksat,  of  the 
Night  Market,  of  St.  Andrew,  of  Quirinarius  (by 
the  house  of  Humaid,  son  of  Durrah)."  Abu 
Ubaidah  agreed  to  this,  and  to  all  their  stipulations. 
He  then  drew  up  a  deed  of  capitulation,  to  which, 
however,  he  neither  attached  his  own  name  nor  those 
of  witnesses;  being  unwilling  to  act  as  commander, 
after  he  had  been  deposed  from  that  office  by  Abu 
Bakr. 

When  he  had  made  out  the  document,  and  handed 
it  over  to  them,  they  asked  him  to  come  with  them. 
So  he  mounted,  and  took  with  him  thirty-five  com- 
panions of  the  Prophet,  and  sixty-five  undistinguished 
Moslems,  and  rode  up  to  the  gate;  before,  however, 
he  would  enter  the  city  he  demanded  hostages,  which 
they  at  once  produced. 

Others,  however,  say  that  he  did  not  demand 
hostages,  relying  instead  on  God.  For  in  the  night 
on  which  the  agreement  was  made,  after  saying  his 
prayer,  he  had  fallen  asleep,  and  seen  the  Prophet  in 
a  dream;  who  uttered  the  words,  "This  night  shall 
the  city  be  taken,  if  God  will."  The  Prophet  then 
hastened   away.     Abu  Ubaidah   asked  whither  he 

[416] 


SCENES  FROM  HISTORY  OF  DAMASCUS 

was  hurrying,  and  was  told  that  it  was  to  the  funeral 
of  Abu  Bakr.  When  Abu  Ubaidah  awoke  from  his 
sleep,  there  was  Abu  Hurairah,  bringing  the  tidings 
of  the  offer  of  terms.  So  he  took  no  hostages,  relying 
on  God's  word. 

He  then  entered  the  city,  preceded  by  the  priests 
and  the  monks,  clad  in  sackcloth,  holding  up  copies 
of  the  Gospel,  and  censers  filled  with  incense.  The 
day  was  Monday,  Jumada  II.,  13  A.  H.  (August  22, 

634)  • 

Abu  Ubaidah  entered  at  the  Bab  al-Jabiyah, 
Khalid  having  no  knowledge  of  what  was  going  on, 
since  he  was  engaged  in  a  fierce  fight  at  the  eastern 
gate.  He  was  greatly  incensed  against  the  Dama- 
scenes, because  another  Khalid,  son  of  Sa'id,  brother 
of  Amr,  son  of  al-As  on  the  mother's  side,  had  been 
killed  with  a  poisoned  arrow;  Khalid,  son  of  al- 
Walid,  had  prayed  over  him  when  he  was  buried 
between  the  Eastern  Gate  and  the  Gate  of  Thomas. 
Now  there  was  a  Greek  priest  named  Joshua,  son  of 
Mark,  living  in  a  house  close  to  that  part  of  the  wall 
which  adjoined  the  eastern  gate.  He  possessed  the 
"  Oracles  of  Daniel,"  and  other  books,  whence  he 
knew  that  God  would  put  the  city  into  the  hands  of 
the  Moslems,  and  that  their  religion  would  prevail 
over  every  other.  On  the  Sunday  night  preceding 
the  day  of  which  the  date  has  been  given,  he  made  a 
hole  in  the  wall  and  went  outside  without  his  wife 
or  children  knowing  anything  of  it.  Coming  before 
Khalid,  he  told  him  how  he  had  dug  a  hole  in  the 
wall,  through  which  he  had  come  out,  and  asked 

[417] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

that  his  life  and  the  lives  of  his  family  should  be 
guaranteed.  Khalid  gave  his  hand  upon  that,  and 
sent  with  him  a  hundred  men  with  their  armour, 
most  of  them  of  the  tribe  of  Himyar.  They  had 
orders,  when  they  got  into  the  city,  to  shout  al- 
together, and  to  make  for  the  door,  of  which  they 
were  to  smash  the  bolts  and  fling  away  the  chains. 
The  men  were  then  preceded  by  Joshua,  son  of  Mark, 
who  led  them  in  by  the  hole  which  he  had  made,  and 
when  they  got  into  the  house  they  put  on  their 
armour,  then  issued  forth  and  made  for  the  gate, 
where  they  raised  the  cry,  Allah  Akbar.  The 
Greeks  were  fighting  on  the  wall,  and  when  they 
heard  this  cry  they  were  alarmed,  and  felt  sure  that 
the  Companions  of  the  Prophet  must  have  entered 
the  city  with  them;  and  they  were  greatly  distressed. 
Then  the  commander  of  the  party  got  to  the  gate  and 
broke  the  bolts  and  cut  the  chains,  so  that  Khalid  and 
his  followers  were  able  to  enter.  They  began  to 
slaughter  the  Romans,  who  retreated  before  him  till 
he  reached  the  Church  of  St.  Mary,  all  the  way  kill- 
ing or  taking  prisoners. 

So  the  two  hosts  met  in  the  church  of  St.  Mary, 
those  of  Khalid  and  of  Abu  Ubaidah.  Khalid  be- 
held a  procession  led  by  priests  and  monks  whom 
Abu  Ubaidah  followed,  none  of  his  followers  having 
their  swords  drawn,  or  fighting.  He  was  amazed 
thereat,  and  gazed  in  wonder.  Abu  Ubaidah,  per- 
ceiving in  his  face  the  signs  of  disapproval,  said  to 
him,  "  Abu  Sulaiman,  the  city  has  been  taken  by  me 
under  an  agreement,  and  God  has  saved  the  Moslems 

[418] 


r-t-S 


\ 


MINAKHT   OF   THE   BKIDK,   DAMASCUS. 


SCENES  FROM  HISTORY  OF  DAMASCUS 

the  trouble  of  fighting."  "  Agreement? "  said 
Khalid,  "  God  make  your  circumstances  anything 
but  agreeable!  I  have  taken  the  city  by  storm,  and 
there  are  no  defenders  left;  what  agreement  can  I 
make  with  them?  "  Abu  Ubaidah  replied,  "  Com- 
mander, fear  God;  I  have  covenanted  with  these 
people,  and  the  arrow  has  been  discharged  with  what 
is  upon  it  [i.e.  the  matter  is  irrevocable].  I  have 
written  the  contract,  and  see  there  it  is  in  their  hands 
unfolded."  "  How  dare  you  make  agreements  with- 
out my  order  and  without  giving  me  notice?  "  replied 
Khalid;  "  am  I  not  your  chief,  and  are  not  you  under 
my  flag?  No,  I  will  not  sheathe  the  sword  until  I 
have  slain  them  every  one!"  Abu  Ubaidah  cried, 
"  By  Allah,  I  never  thought  that  you  would  disallow 
any  covenant  that  I  had  made,  or  disapprove  of  any 
opinion  that  I  had  expressed,  I  adjure  you  by 
God,  respect  what  I  have  done.  I  have  given  my 
guarantee  to  them  all,  and  pledged  thereto  the  faith 
of  God  and  of  the  Prophet.  All  the  Moslems  who 
were  with  me  assented  thereunto,  and  treachery  is  not 
our  custom,     God  have  mercy  on  you." 

A  fierce  quarrel  broke  out  between  them,  and  the 
spectators  took  sides.  Khalid  was  unwilling  to 
change  his  resolution,  and  Abu  Ubaidah  looked  at 
the  followers  of  Khalid,  Bedouins  and  old  cam- 
paigners, and  saw  that  they  were  eager  for  rapine 
and  slaughter,  and  unwilling  to  spare  a  life.  He 
began  to  cry  with  bitterness  that  he  had  been 
affronted  and  his  promise  disregarded;  and,  setting 
spurs  to  his  horse,  he  began  to  point  to  the  Arabs,  now 

[421  ] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

right  and  now  left,  and  adjure  them  by  the  Prophet 
to  move  no  further  in  the  direction  whence  he  had 
come,  till  some  arrangement  might  be  come  to  be- 
tween himself  and  Khalid.  At  his  entreaty  they 
stopped  slaying  and  pillaging,  and  a  number  of  the 
captains  gathered  together  at  the  church  where  they 
had  met  with  the  view  of  deliberation.  Some  of 
these  captains  urged  the  advisability  of  carrying  out 
Abu  Ubaidah's  wishes  on  the  ground  that  Syria  was 
as  yet  imperfectly  conquered,  and  that  Heraclius  was 
still  at  Antioch.  If  the  rumour  spread  that  having 
once  made  terms  the  Moslems  had  violated  them,  no 
other  city  would  capitulate  by  agreement;  and  sec- 
ondly, it  would  be  better  to  have  the  Christians  of 
Damascus  peaceful  subjects  than  to  slaughter  them. 
It  was  then  agreed  that  each  of  the  two  commanders 
should  retain  possession  of  the  part  of  the  city  which 
he  had  got,  and  write  to  ask  the  Caliph's  decision  by 
which  they  should  abide.  To  this  Khalid  assented. 
Presently,  much  against  Khalid's  wishes,  the  two 
governors,  Thomas  and  Arabius,  are  allowed  to  leave 
the  city  with  quantities  of  treasure,  with  a  promise 
that  they  shall  not  be  molested  within  three  days  of 
their  departure.  Khalid  makes  up  his  mind  to  fol- 
low them  when  that  period  has  elapsed. 

And  now  there  follows  a  romance  in  the  stricter 
sense  of  the  word.  "  I  was,"  said  one  Wathilah, 
"  among  the  horsemen  whom  Khalid  employed  to 
patrol  between  the  gates  under  command  of  Dirar, 
son  of  al-Azwar.  On  one  moonlight  night  before 
Damascus  was  taken,  we  were  near  the  Kaisan  Gate, 

[422] 


SCENES  FROM  HISTORY  OF  DAMASCUS 

when,  hearing  the  hinges  creak,  we  stopped.  The 
gate  was  opened,  a  horseman  came  out,  whom  we  al- 
lowed to  proceed  till  he  came  near  us,  when  we 
arrested  him,  telling  him  that  if  he  uttered  a  word 
he  would  be  beheaded.  Two  other  mounted  men 
then  came  out  and  stood  on  guard  at  the  gate.  They 
called  to  our  prisoner  by  his  name,  and  we  bade  him 
reply  and  decoy  them  out.  He  called  to  them  in 
Greek,  '  The  bird  is  in  the  net,'  whence  they  learned 
that  he  was  arrested,  and  hastened  inside  and  locked 
the  gate.  We  wanted  to  kill  the  prisoner,  but  some 
of  us  suggested  that  he  should  be  taken  to  the  Com- 
mander, who  might  decide  what  should  be  done  with 
him.  When  Khalid  saw  the  man,  he  asked  him  who 
he  was.  He  answered,  *  I  am  a  patrician,  one  of  the 
rulers  of  Syria.  Before  your  arrival  I  was  betrothed 
to  a  maiden  of  my  people  whom  I  deeply  love.  As 
the  siege  became  protracted,  I  asked  her  people  to  let 
the  marriage  take  place,  but  they  refused,  saying  that 
they  had  other  things  to  think  about.  Being  anxious 
to  meet  the  maiden,  I  made  an  appointment  with  her 
that  we  should  both  be  present  at  the  city  sports. 
There  we  met  and  conversed,  when  she  asked  me  to 
take  her  to  the  city  gate,  where  I  left  her,  and  came 
out  to  reconnoitre  when  I  was  caught  by  your  men. 
My  two  friends  with  the  maiden  came  out  after  me, 
but  I  called  out  to  them  that  the  bird  was  in  the  net 
to  warn  them,  for  fear  the  maiden  might  be  made 
prisoner.  Had  it  been  anyone  else  I  should  not  have 
minded.'  Khalid  suggested  to  him  that  he  should 
embrace  Islam,  in  which  case,  should  the  city  be 

[423] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

taken,  he  should  wed  his  bride.  '  Otherwise,'  he 
said,  '  I  shall  kill  you.'  The  patrician  elected  to 
become  a  Moslem,  and  testified  that  there  was  no  God 
but  Allah  and  Mohammed  was  His  Prophet.  He 
then  showed  himself  a  doughty  warrior  on  our 
side. 

"When  we  entered  the  city  in  virtue  of  the  capitu- 
lation, he  went  to  look  for  his  bride,  and  was  told  that 
she  had  become  a  nun  out  of  grief  for  him.  He  went 
to  the  church  and  saw  her,  but  she  did  not  recognise 
him.  He  asked  her  what  had  induced  her  to  take 
the  veil.  She  replied  that  she  had  taken  it  because 
she  had  caused  her  betrothed  to  risk  his  life  and  be 
captured  by  the  Arabs.  She  had  become  a  nun  out 
of  grief  over  him.  He  said,  '  I  am  thy  betrothed;  I 
have  embraced  the  religion  of  the  Arabs,  and  thou 
art  now  under  my  protection.'  When  she  heard  his 
words  she  cried  out,  *  No,  by  the  Lord  Jesus  I  Never! 
This  cannot  be!'  She  left  Damascus  with  the  two 
patricians,  Thomas  and  Arabius.  When  her  be- 
trothed saw  that  she  was  determined  to  discard  him, 
he  went  and  complained  to  Khalid.  Khalid  in- 
formed him  that  Abu  Ubaidah  had  taken  the  city  by 
capitulation,  and  that  he  had  no  control  over  her. 
Knowing,  however,  that  Khalid  intended  following 
the  refugees,  he  offered  to  go  with  the  commander  on 
the  chance  of  finding  his  bride.  Khalid  waited  until 
the  fourth  day  after  their  departure;  and  when  he 
did  not  start,  the  Greek  came  and  asked  him  whether 
after  all  he  intended  following  the  two  miscreants, 
and  taking  from  them  what  they  had  got.     Khalid 

[424] 


DAMASCUS:    .MINARKT   OK   JliSLS. 


SCENES  FROM  HISTORY  OF  DAMASCUS 

replied  that  such  had  been  his  intention,  but  that  he 
was  kept  from  executing  it  by  the  distance  which 
now  lay  between  him  and  them,  since  the  refugees 
had  been  hastened  by  their  terror,  and  they  could  not 
now  be  overtaken.  The  patrician,  whose  name  was 
Jonas,  said  that  the  distance  was  no  sufficient  reason 
for  abandoning  the  enterprise,  since  he  knew  the 
country  and  could  take  Khalid's  forces  by  short  cuts 
which  would  enable  them  to  overtake  the  party,  and 
that  he  would  willingly  do  this  on  the  chance  of  re- 
covering his  bride.  After  assuring  Khalid  that  he 
was  acquainted  with  the  country,  he  advised  that 
Khalid's  followers  should  don  the  attire  of  the  Chris- 
tian Arab  tribes,  Lakhm  and  Judham,  and  take  suffi- 
cient provision  for  the  journey.  The  people  did  as 
he  advised.  Khalid  collected  his  4000  guards,  and 
ordered  them  to  mount  the  fleetest  of  their  horses, 
and  reduce  their  store  of  provisions  to  the  lightest 
possible  weight.  They  then  started,  Khalid  having 
left  Abu  Ubaidah  in  charge  of  the  city. 

"  So  we  rode,  guided  by  Jonas,  who  followed  their 
trail,  which,  indeed,  we  could  often  make  out  our- 
selves, not  only  from  the  track  of  the  horses  and 
mules,  but  also  because  any  mount,  camel  or  mule, 
that  fell  was  left  by  them,  and  any  horse  that  could 
not  proceed  was  hamstrung.  We  rode  on  night  and 
day,  stopping  only  at  prayer-times,  till  the  trail  came 
to  an  end.  This  alarmed  us,  and  Khalid  asked  Jonas 
what  he  had  to  say  about  it.  '  Commander,'  he 
replied,  'ride  on  and  ask  God's  aid;  the  refugees 
have  turned  out  of  the  road  for  fear  of  you,  and  taken 

[427] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

to  the  mountains  and  passes;  still  we  have  all  but 
overtaken  them.' 

"  Then  he  made  the  Moslems  turn  aside  from  the 
road,  and  took  them  through  ravines  and  over  moun- 
tains and  stoneheaps.  '  He  took  us,'  said  one  of  the 
party,  '  over  a  very  stony  track,  out  of  which  a  man 
could  with  difficulty  extricate  himself.  We  com- 
pelled our  horses  to  go  among  the  stones,  and  could 
see  the  blood  oozing  from  their  hocks,  and  their 
shoes  falling  off  their  hoofs.  Our  own  shoes  were 
cut  to  pieces,  and  only  the  uppers  left.'  Another 
member  of  the  party  said,  "  I  was  with  Khalid  on 
that  expedition,  and  we  had  to  follow  the  guide.  I 
had  a  pair  of  leather  shoes  with  Yemen  soles,  of 
which  I  was  very  proud,  and  which  I  fancied  would 
last  me  for  years.  On  that  night  nothing  remained 
of  them  but  the  uppers  on  my  legs.  I  was  afraid  of 
the  results  of  the  rough  and  difficult  mountain  path 
that  we  had  traversed,  and  perceived  that  the  others 
were  complaining  and  wishing  that  the  guide  had 
kept  to  the  beaten  track.  However,  before  night  was 
over  we  had  got  over  the  worst  part,  and  emerged 
into  the  main  road,  where  the  guide  hoped  that  we 
should  have  come  up  with  the  fugitives;  but  when 
we  had  reached  it,  we  saw  their  track,  and  found  that 
they  had  got  in  front  of  us,  by  forced  marches  appar- 
ently. Khalid  said, '  They  have  escaped  us.'  But  the 
guide  Jonas  said,  '  I  have  hopes  that  God  Almighty 
will  detain  them  till  we  can  come  up  with  them,  if 
He  will.  So  let  us  hasten.'  Khalid  accordingly 
bade  the  men  bestir  themselves.     The  Moslems  said, 

[428] 


SCENES  FROM  HISTORY  OF  DAMASCUS 

*  Commander,  the  difficult  path  has  worn  us  out,  so 
let  us  rest  and  give  our  horses  food  and  rest  also.* 
But  he  said,  '  Move  on  in  the  name  of  God,  for  it  is 
God  who  bids  you  march;  hasten  in  pursuit  of  your 
enemies.' 

"  So  they  hastened,  the  guide  showing  the  way,  and 
also  acting  as  our  interpreter,  and  whatever  village 
we  entered,  the  people  there  thought  us  Christian 
Arabs  of  the  tribes  Ghassan,  Lakhm,  or  Judham. 
He  took  us  past  Gibili  and  Latakieh,  and  brought  us 
at  last  within  sight  of  the  sea,  still  following  the  trail. 
And  then  we  saw  that  the  fugitives  had  passed  by 
Latakieh  without  entering  it  for  fear  of  the  Emperor 
Heraclius.  Jonas  was  amazed  at  this,  and  going  to 
a  village  near  asked  some  of  the  proprietors  what 
had  happened;  and  they  informed  him  that  the  Em- 
peror Heraclius  hearing  that  Thomas  and  Arabius 
had  delivered  the  city  of  Damascus  to  the  Moslems, 
was  exceedingly  angry,  and  had  not  permitted  them 
to  approach  him;  his  purpose  being  to  collect  an 
army  and  despatch  it  to  Yarmuk.  He  was  afraid  of 
their  telling  the  soldiers  about  the  courage  of  the 
Prophet's  Companions,  and  so  disheartening  them; 
he  had  therefore  sent  orders  to  them  to  proceed  with 
their  company  to  Constantinople,  and  not  to  enter 
Latakieh.  When  the  Damascene  Jonas  heard  that 
the  fugitives  had  gone  off  in  the  direction  of  the  sea, 
he  was  vexed  and  alarmed  for  the  Moslems,  and  un- 
certain what  to  do.  He  was  in  favour  of  going  back, 
but  Khalid  encouraged  the  Moslems  by  narrating  a 
dream  which  appeared  to  promise  success.     Heavy 

[431] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

rains  now  delay  the  fugitives,  and  after  some  more 
time  spent  in  pursuit,  the  Moslems  reach  a  spot 
where  they  can  hear  sounds  which  seem  to  proceed 
from  the  Christian  host.  Jonas  with  another  ascend 
a  mountain  called  by  the  Greeks  Jebel  Barik  (the 
Lightning  Mountain),  and  see  below  a  fertile 
meadow,  green  and  flowery,  in  the  middle  of  which 
the  Christians  are  loitering,  worn  out  with  fatigue 
and  wet  with  the  rain.  Many  are  asleep,  and  the 
loads  have  been  taken  off  many  of  their  beasts. 

"  The  good  news  is  brought  to  Khalid  by  the  two 
scouts,  and  Jonas  takes  care  to  stipulate  that  his  bride 
must  be  reserved  for  his  own  possession,  should  she 
be  captured  by  anyone  else.  Khalid  then  divides  his 
party  into  four  troops  who  charge  the  fugitives  from 
different  sides.  The  Christians  resist,  supposing  at 
first  that  the  Arabs  are  a  small  detachment  whom 
they  can  easily  overcome,  but  they  find  themselves 
involved  in  a  terrible  conflict. 

"  Said  one  of  those  who  were  present:  '  I  was  in 
Khalid's  right  wing,  and  had  gone  with  my  band  to 
attack  the  part  of  the  Christian  host  that  contained 
the  women,  children  and  baggage.  I  observed  the 
Greek  women  defending  themselves  vigorously,  and 
I  noticed  a  horseman  attired  in  Greek  style  dismount 
and  commence  fighting  with  a  Greek  woman,  each 
of  whom  displayed  great  vehemence.  I  approached 
to  see  who  it  was.  It  was  Jonas  fighting  with  his 
bride,  and  the  struggle  was  like  one  between  lion  and 
lioness.' 

"  For  a  time  this  spectator  was  occupied  with  a 

[432] 


'WS'f^, 


s^'' 

f 

•i-;i 

f"^ 


f  5f  "f^ 


5*^ 


\\^ 


'^fl 


vv,  r 


■«(f^ 


SCENES  FROM  HISTORY  OF  DAMASCUS 

fight  on  his  own  account,  having  endeavoured  to  cap 
ture  a  number  of  Greek  women,  one  of  whom  killed 
his  horse.  He  succeeded,  however,  in  making  her 
his  prisoner,  and  she  turned  out  to  be  Heraclius's 
daughter.  But  before  leaving  the  field  he  wished  to 
see  what  had  become  of  Jonas.  '  Finally  I  found 
him  sitting  with  his  bride  before  him,  she  weltering 
in  blood  and  he  in  tears.  I  asked  him  what  had 
happened.  He  said,  "  This  is  my  bride,  my  sole 
object  of  pursuit.  I  loved  her  dearly.  When  I  saw 
her,  I  said,  '  See,  I  have  overtaken  thee,  and  shalt 
thou  escape  from  my  hand  '?  She  said, '  By  the  Lord 
Jesus,  thou  and  I  shall  never  be  united,  seeing  thou 
hast  left  thy  faith  and  entered  into  the  religion  of 
Mohammed.  I  have  given  myself  to  Christ,  and 
am  on  my  way  to  Constantinople,  there  to  enter  a 
convent.'  Then  she  fought  for  her  liberty,  and  I 
fought  with  her  till  I  had  made  her  my  prisoner; 
and  when  she  saw  that  she  was  taken,  she  drew  out  a 
knife  and  plunged  it  into  her  breast,  and  fell  down 
dead.  And  see  I  am  weeping  over  her,  broken- 
hearted." ' " 

(This  story  is  no  mean  tribute  from  a  Moslem 
writer  to  the  heroism  of  Christian  women.) 

THE  TAKING  OF  DAMASCUS  BY  HULAGU 
After  D'Ohsoon 

On  January  29,  1260,  Nasir,  great-grandson  of 
Saladin,  prince  of  Damascus,  hearing  of  tKe  sack  of 
Aleppo,  was  persuaded  by  his  generals  to  retreat  in 

[435] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

the  direction  of  Egypt,  leaving  Damascus  unde- 
fended. By  his  order  all  the  chief  inhabitants,  sol- 
diers as  well  as  citizens,  departed  hastily  for  Egypt, 
some  after  selling  their  goods  at  ruinous  prices. 
Seven  hundred  silver  dirhems  was  the  hire  of  a 
camel. 

After  the  departure  of  Nasir  the  Emir  Zain  al-din 
Sulaiman,  better  known  as  Zain  al-Hafizi,  closed  the 
gates  of  the  city,  assembled  the  notables,  and  agreed 
with  them  to  deliver  Damascus  to  the  Mongols  in 
order  to  spare  the  blood  of  the  people.  In  conse- 
quence a  deputation,  composed  of  the  chief  inhabi- 
tants, left  for  the  Mongol  camp  at  Aleppo,  taking 
with  them  some  rich  presents  and  the  keys  of  the  city. 
Hulagu  bestowed  a  robe  of  honour  on  the  head  of  the 
deputation,  the  Judge  Muhyi'1-din,  son  of  al-Zaki, 
and  nominated  him  chief  judge  of  Syria.  This  per- 
sonage immediately  thereupon  returned  to  Damascus, 
where  he  assembled  the  doctors  and  notables,  before 
whom  clad  in  his  robe  of  honour  he  read  out  the 
letters  nominating  him  to  his  new  post.  He  then  pub- 
lished an  edict  whereby  Hulagu  promised  the  inhab- 
itants of  Damascus  the  security  of  their  lives. 

The  Mongol  chief  then  sent  two  commanders,  one 
a  Mongol  the  other  a  Persian,  to  Damascus,  with  in- 
structions to  follow  the  advice  of  Zain  al-Hafizi,  and 
treat  the  inhabitants  well.  A  short  time  after  there 
arrived  the  general,  Kitubogha,  with  a  detachment  of 
Mongol  troops.  The  city  sent  to  meet  them  a  dep- 
utation of  sheiks  and  notables,  carrying  banners 
and  copies  of  the  Koran.     The  new  governor  re- 

[436] 


SCENES  FROM  HISTORY  OF  DAMASCUS 

newed  the  edict  promising  security,  and  saw  that 
neither  life  nor  property  was  violated. 

When  the  Christians  of  Damascus  saw  the  city 
occupied  by  Mongol  troops,  they  produced  an  order 
of  Hulagu,  granting  them  protection,  and  armed 
with  this  they  proceeded  to  defy  their  oppressors. 
Mohammedan  historians  relate  wuth  indignation 
how  they  drank  wine  publicly,  even  in  the  fasting 
month,  spilling  it  on  the  garments  of  the  Moslems 
and  the  doors  of  the  mosques;  how  they  compelled 
the  Moslems  to  rise  when  they  passed  with  the  Cross 
before  the  Moslem  shops;  insulting  any  who  refused 
to  do  so.  They  ran  through  the  streets  singing 
psalms  and  proclaiming  that  Christ's  religion  was 
the  true  one ;  they  went  so  far  as  to  pull  down  mosques 
and  minarets  that  were  close  to  their  churches.  The 
outraged  Moslems  made  complaint  to  the  Mongol 
governor;  but  he  being  a  Christian  disregarded  them, 
and  caused  some  of  them  to  be  beaten;  whereas  he 
treated  the  Christian  priests  with  great  respect, 
visited  the  churches,  and  took  the  Christian  leaders 
under  his  protection.  On  the  other  hand  the  chief 
Judge  Zain  al-Hafizi  extorted  large  sums  of  money 
from  the  inhabitants,  with  which  he  purchased  valu- 
able fabrics  which  he  presented  to  the  Mongol 
chiefs ;  and  every  day  he  sent  them  loads  of  provisions 
for  their  banquets. 

The  Citadel'  had  not  yet  capitulated.  Kitubogha 
began  the  siege  on  the  night  of  March  21,  and  bat- 
tered the  place  with  twenty  catapults  until  April  6, 
when  it  yielded.     The  Mongols  sacked  it,  burned  the 

[437] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

buildings  which  it  contained,  demolished  most  of  the 
towers,  and  destroyed  all  the  military  engines.  Zain 
al-Hafizi  wrote  to  Hulagu  to  ask  for  instructions 
with  regard  to  the  commander  of  the  Citadel  and  his 
adjutant,  who  had  been  made  prisoners;  he  received 
as  reply  their  death-warrant,  and  proceeded  to 
execute  them  himself;  he  beheaded  them  at  Marj 
Barghuth,  where  Kitubogha  had  placed  his  camp. 

In  September  of  the  same  year  was  fought  the 
battle  of  Ain  Jalut  at  which  the  Mongols  were  de- 
feated by  the  forces  of  the  Egyptian  Sultan.  The 
Mongol  camp,  with  the  women  and  children,  fell 
into  the  power  of  the  victors.  Hulagu's  governors 
were  assassinated  in  a  number  of  towns.  Those  who 
were  in  Damascus  were  able  to  escape  in  time.  When 
the  news  reached  this  place,  the  Mongol  commanders 
and  their  partisans  immediately  made  ofif,  but 
they  were  plundered  by  the  country  people.  The 
Mongol  occupation  of  Damascus  had  lasted  seven 
months  and  ten  days. 

From  Tiberias,  a  day  or  two  after  his  victory,  the 
Sultan  addressed  a  letter  to  the  city  of  Damascus, 
proclaiming  the  victory  which  had  been  vouchsafed 
him  by  God.  The  news  caused  transports  of  joy,  be- 
cause the  Moslems  were  despairing  of  ever  being 
delivered  from  the  yoke  of  the  Mongols,  who  till 
then  had  appeared  invincible.  The  Moslem  in- 
habitants immediately  rushed  to  the  houses  of  the 
Christians,  which  they  pillaged  and  ruined;  many 
Christians  were  killed.  The  churches  of  St.  James 
and  St.  Mary  were  burned.    The  Jews  had  to  suffer 

[438] 


^:Jk 


SCENES  FROM  HISTORY  OF  DAMASCUS 

similarly.  Their  houses  and  shops  were  completely 
looted,  and  armed  force  had  to  be  employed  to  pre- 
vent the  people  from  setting  fire  to  their  dwellings 
and  synagogues.  Then  came  the  turn  of  those  Mos- 
lems who  had  acted  as  partisans  and  agents  of  the 
Mongols;  they  were  massacred.  A  few  days  later 
Kotuz  arrived  with  his  army  before  Damascus,  and 
remained  in  camp  for  two  days  before  entering  the 
city.  He  ordered  the  execution  of  several  Moslems 
who  had  taken  the  Mongol  side,  and  had  thirty 
Christians  hung.  He  then  imposed  on  the  Christian 
population  a  fine  of  150,000  dirhems. 

THE  DESTRUCTION  OF  DAMASCUS  BY  TIMUR 
After  Ibn  lyas 

The  Sultan  Faraj  had,  on  hearing  of  the  advance  of 
Timur  into  Syria,  come  to  Damascus  in  person,  where 
he  had  scored  some  slight  victories  over  the  outpost  of 
the  Mongol  invader,  and  received  large  accessions  of 
deserters.  News,  however,  of  an  attempted  revolu- 
tion at  home  caused  him  to  withdraw  suddenly,  leav- 
ing Damascus  exposed  to  the  attack  of  Timur.  Hear- 
ing of  the  approach  of  the  Mongols,  the  people  of 
Damascus  on  Saturday  21  Jumada  I.,  803  (January 
8,  1400),  were  in  great  dismay,  and  locked  the  gates 
of  the  city.  They  mounted  the  walls,  and  began  to 
shoot  at  Timur's  army,  and  dragged  each  other  for- 
ward to  fight.  The  first  day  there  was  a  considerable 
engagement,  in  which  some  2000  of  Timur's  army 
were  killed.    On  Sunday  Timur  sent  requesting  that 

[441] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND  DAMASCUS 

some  eminent  and  intelligent  citizen  should  be  sent  to 
act  as  intermediary,  with  a  view  to  peace  negotia- 
tions. 

When  Timur's  envoy  brought  this  message,  there 
was  some  discussion  as  to  whom  they  should  send,  and 
the  choice  finally  fell  on  the  Kadi  Taki  al-din  Ibn 
Muflih  the  Hanbalite,  he  being  a  ready  speaker, 
skilful  in  both  Turkish  and  Persian.  He  was  let 
down  from  the  top  of  the  wall  in  a  basket,  and  with 
him  five  other  eminent  Damascenes.  He  stayed 
away  a  little  time,  and  then  returned,  when  he  stated 
that  Timur  had  been  exceedingly  courteous.  "  This 
city,"  he  had  said,  "  is  the  home  of  the  Prophets,  and 
I  give  it  its  liberty  for  their  sake."  He  had  also 
gone  to  see  the  tomb  of  Umm  Habibah  (one  of  the 
Prophet's  wives),  and  expressed  his  regret  that  such 
a  monument  should  be  without  a  cupola;  he  had 
therefore  undertaken  to  provide  it  with  one  himself. 
Ibn  Muflih  further  stated  that  the  Mongol  prince 
throughout  the  audience  had  been  frequently  men- 
tioning the  name  of  God  Almighty,  and  asking  for- 
giveness for  his  sins,  and  that  he  never  let  the  rosary 
drop  from  his  hands.  This,  however,  was  as  Ibra- 
him al-Mi'mar  says: 

!As  the  butcher  pronounces  the  name 
Of  the  Lord  on  the  beast  that  he  slays: 

So  our  governor's  tyrannous  acts 
He  preludes  with  prayer  and  praise. 

Ibn  Muflih  was  indeed  so  eloquent  on  the  virtues  of 
Timur  that  the  people  of  Damascus  felt  unwilling  to 
fight  against  such  a  man,  and  anxious  to  be  his  sub- 

[442] 


=^^ 


■«*,.. 


5:z::Zi  FROM  HIiTOKY  OF  ::jjJ-iA5CU5 

jects.     Or  raiher.  tiiev  divided  intp-  two  parries,  oas 
:  -  :       -h  Ibn  MTifi  rhe  rther  sriT  reiir  re  £^- 

the  ZT-iirr  "_^:tr  rf  rrie  rr^rzsfrlk  ^?^*^   ?t!  t^e 
latter  =ide:  bnt  bv  Macdav  mcmirLj  T-yn  T    .'■'-_" 
secured  a  majoritj  fcr  his  pcli-rv.  i.-  :  "" 
tiie  Bib  il-Xisir.     This,  brwever     •  .^  -;^----  ^j 

±7   :■: ■i":der  cf  rhe  CitadeL  who  thre-irened  to 

:  ---  --he  diT  if  it  -sc^re  drne.     Ihc  Mn££h  then,  ^cc 

_:"":":  :~  : :  i  :~  7;  rt  TrmtLr.  and  tnc^^-  ■  ::r  -.t 
1.  _  __"_  i^^^iij  ::_-!_  ihe  rz-v  ct  the  "wrxLL  Fhz"^ 
i^ert    c-ierra-'n-ed   riie    M'?ndiy   night   in    Trmmr's 

:iji:r    i"  i  sent  hick  r:  F  .  -  _  r  ms  diie  neit  \i2j  witit 

-  :  :  -  -_  Jie  Uniijvad  Mcsc-ie.  izd  ^iras 
receive:  -  _:_-  crfi:  rtjrichig  by  the  pecple  cf  die 
citv.  -  zd  the  Bib  Si|:hir.    Ther  feit 

perfe*::- .  : . .      .    .  _:  G:d  rnl"  kz:^:vs  what  is  ht  the 
heart,  as  ~   .^  : : ; 2  si„i : 


E: 

L 
E 


^^'he2  the  g^ate  was  ope::ed.  cze  w^i  Titnur's  c:5;c^rs 
took  his  station  there,  assertir.^  that  it  wi- 
ness  to  see  that  the  Mor.i:.'  :-   — ^^:  :'  :'  ^ 

Timur  then  sent  for  Ihn  > . . 

dcrtook  to  collect  a  million  dinars  fr^v     .   ...    > 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,  AND   DAMASCUS 

of  Damascus.  This  he  set  about  doing  immediately 
after  the  audience,  but  when  the  sum  was  made  up 
and  brought  to  Timur,  the  Mongol  made  a  wry  face 
and  declared  himself  dissatified,  asserting  it  was  a 
million  tomans  for  which  he  had  stipulated,  a  to- 
man having  the  value  of  ten  (million)  dinars.  Ibn 
Muflih  was  disconcerted  by  this  demand,  and  after 
leaving  Timur  tried  every  expedient  in  his  power  to 
get  together  the  money,  applying  rack  and  torture 
to  the  citizens,  demanding  ten  Syrian  dirhems  from 
each  individual,  great  or  small;  three  months'  rev- 
enue was  demanded  from  all  religious  establish- 
ments: and  the  distress  resulting  from  these  measures 
was  indescribable,  especially  as  prices  had  risen  dur- 
ing the  siege,  a  bushel  of  wheat  fetching  forty  Syrian 
dirhems.  Public  prayer  and  preaching  were  aban- 
doned, and  one  of  Timur's  captains,  named  Shah 
Malik,  took  up  his  quarters  with  his  women  folk  in 
the  Uma3^ad  Mosque,  of  which  he  locked  the  door; 
he  took  up  the  carpets  and  the  matting  of  the  mosque, 
and  with  them  blocked  up  the  openings  in  the  walls, 
and  he  with  his  soldiers  proceeded  to  drink  wine, 
beat  drums  and  play  dice  in  the  Mosque.  While  this 
lasted,  there  was  no  call  to  prayer  or  any  public 
worship  in  any  of  the  sanctuaries;  business  was  at  a 
standstill,  and  the  markets  empty,  while  each  day 
more  and  more  of  Timur's  troops  entered  the  city, 
till  it  became  full  of  them,  and  they  proceeded  to  lay 
siege  to  the  Citadel.  This  was  deliver'^d  up  to  the 
Mongols  after  twenty-nine  days'  siege,  when  the  gov- 
ernor thought  there  was  no  prospect  of  saving  it. 

[446] 


SCENES  FROM  HISTORY  OF  DAMASCUS 

The  Mongols  took  possession  of  everything,  animate 
and  inanimate,  which  it  contained,  and,  indeed,  of 
the  whole  city.  Ibn  Muflih  then  made  a  second 
presentation  of  money  to  Timur,  who  told  him  that 
what  he  had  brought  amounted  in  Mongol  reckon- 
ing to  three  million  dinars ;  there  were  thus  still  seven 
millions  owing.  The  first  stipulation  made  by  the 
Mongol  with  Ibn  Muflih  had  been  for  a  million 
dinars,  exclusive  of  the  goods,  arms  and  beasts  left 
by  the  Egyptian  Sultan  and  his  officers  when  they 
went  away.  Returning  from  the  audience  Ibn 
Muflih  had  a  proclamation  made  that  whoever  had 
in  his  keeping  any  property  left  on  trust  by  the 
Sultan,  his  officers  or  his  soldiers,  should  immediately 
produce  it.  The  order  was  obeyed,  and  the  whole 
brought  before  Timur,  who  told  Ibn  Muflih  he  must 
now  bring  the  property  of  all  Damascene  merchants 
and  persons  of  eminence  who  had  left  the  city. 
When  all  this  had  been  brought,  Ibn  Muflih  was  told 
to  bring  all  the  beasts  of  burden  in  the  city,  horses, 
mules,  camels  and  asses;  these  were  brought  to  the 
number  of  12,000  head.  Next  he  was  told  to  collect 
and  bring  all  weapons  of  any  sort,  however  good  or 
bad.  After  these  had  been  fetched,  Ibn  Muflih  was 
ordered  to  make  out  a  list  of  all  the  quarters  and 
streets  of  Damascus.  When  Ibn  Muflih  had  made 
out  a  set  of  tables,  and  brought  them  to  Timur,  he 
was  told  finally  to  apportion  the  sum  of  7,000,000 
dinars  which  was  still  owing  according  to  the  terms 
of  the  capitulation.  Ibn  Muflih  replied  that  there 
was  not  a  gold  or  silver  coin  left  in  the  place.     At 

[449] 


CAIRO,  JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

this  Timur  was  angry,  and  commanded  Ibn  Muflih 
and  his  assistants  to  be  arrested  and  put  in  irons. 
"  Cauterisation  is  the  leech's  last  expedient."  It 
turned  out  then  as  has  been  said: 


A  king's  intent  is  gall  to  eat 

Coated  with  honey  from  outside: 

So  he  who  tastes  it  thinks  it  sweet 
Till  he  find  out  what  it  doth  hide. 


Timur  then  distributed  the  tickets  containing  the 
names  of  the  streets  among  his  officers,  and  the  whole 
army  was  introduced  within  the  walls.  Each  officer 
stationed  himself  in  a  street,  and  demanded  of  its 
inhabitants  an  impossible  sum.  Each  householder 
would  be  made  to  stand  in  his  rags  at  the  door  of  his 
house,  and  bidden  to  pay  the  sum  allotted  to  him; 
when  he  replied  that  he  had  nothing  left,  he  would 
be  violently  beaten,  his  house  entered,  and  all  the 
furniture  and  copper  utensils  would  be  taken  away. 
He  with  all  his  family  would  then  be  dragged  out, 
and  his  wives  and  daughters  would  be  violated  be- 
fore his  eyes.  The  male  children  after  being  made 
to  undergo  similar  atrocities  would  be  beaten,  and 
the  scourging  of  the  householder  himself  continued 
while  all  this  was  done.  Ingenious  forms  of  torture 
were  devised;  hempen  cord  would  be  tied  round  a 
man's  head  and  tightened  till  it  sank  in ;  then  it  would 
be  put  under  his  arms,  and  his  thumbs  be  tied  to- 
gether behind  his  back;  then  he  would  be  made  to 
lie  on  his  back,  and  a  cloth  containing  hot  ashes  be 
put  over  him.     Men  were  suspended  by  their  great 

[450] 


SCENES  FROM  HISTORY  OF  DAMASCUS 

toes,  and  fires  lighted  under  them,  till  they  either 
died  of  the  agony  or  fell  into  the  blaze.  Timur's 
soldiers  did  such  things  as  it  whitens  the  hair  to  hear 
of.  Nineteen  days  did  these  atrocities  continue;  on 
Wednesday,  the  eighteenth  of  Rejeb  of  the  year  803 
(March  4,  1400),  Damascus  was  entered  by  an  army 
like  the  waves  of  the  sea,  all  foot-soldiers,  with  drawn 
swords  in  their  hands.  These  looted  whatever  re- 
mained in  the  city,  and  bound  the  men,  women  and 
children,  whom  they  dragged  off  in  ropes  not  know- 
ing whither  they  were  to  be  taken.  They  left  in  the 
city  infants  under  four  years  of  age,  and  decayed  old 
women  and  men.     The  rest  were  led  off. 

On  Thursday  the  first  of  Sha'ban  (March  17, 
1400),  Timur  ordered  the  city  of  Damascus  to  be  set 
on  fire,  which  was  done;  a  pyre  blazed  which  dis- 
charged sparks  as  big  as  yellow  camels.  The  Umay- 
yad  Mosque  was  burned  till  all  left  was  a  wall  stand- 
ing with  no  roof,  nor  door  nor  marble;  most  of  the 
mosques  and  oratories  of  Damascus  were  burned 
also,  as  were  the  market-places  and  the  magazines 
which  had  first  been  plundered,  and  most  of  the 
streets  were  destroyed  by  the  fire  so  as  to  become  un- 
recognisable, as  has  been  said: 

I  pass  by  haunts  I  once  knew  well, 
Bright  homes  of  wealth  and  gladness, 

Only  the  owls  do  there  now  dwell — 
Plague  on  ye,  birds  of  sadness! 

So  Damascus  that  had  been  so  prosperous,  so 
happy,  so  bright,  so  luxurious,  so  magnificent,  was 

[453] 


CAIRO,   JERUSALEM,   AND   DAMASCUS 

turned  into  a  heap  of  ruins,  of  desolate  remains, 
destitute  of  all  its  beauty  and  all  its  art.  Not  a  liv- 
ing being  was  moving,  nothing  was  there  except 
carcasses  partly  burned,  and  figures  disfigured  with 
dust,  covered  with  a  cloak  of  flies,  and  become  the 
prey  and  the  spoil  of  dogs.  Even  a  sagacious  man 
could  not  find  the  way  to  his  house,  nor  distinguish 
between  a  stranger's  dwelling  and  his  own.  "We 
are  God's  and  to  God  do  we  return!  " 


[454] 


APPENDIX 

THE  MASSACRE  OF  1860  FROM  A  WORK  CALLED 

"THE  UNVEILING  OF  THE  TROUBLES 

OF  SYRIA" 

^^^^/HERE  was  at  this  time  in  Damascus  a  gov-s 
m  C|  crnor  named  Ahmad  Pasha,  who  had  been 
^L^^^  given  control  of  both  the  administration 
^^"^  and  the  army.  The  whole  history  of  Tur- 
key offers  no  example  of  a  baser,  more  mischievous  or 
more  cunning  scoundrel.  He  made  it  his  chief  busi- 
ness to  stir  up  angry  passions  and  prepare  the  way 
for  a  massacre.  The  massacres  of  Hasibiyya  and 
Rashiyya  were  by  his  orders  and  under  his  direction, 
and  the  Turkish  soldiers  who  carried  them  out  were 
his  servants.  Circumstances  helped  him  to  stir  up 
bad  blood,  especially  the  rescript  in  which  the  Sultan 
proclaimed  equality  between  his  subjects  in  accord- 
ance with  the  Treaty  of  Paris.  When  the  Moslems 
perceived  that  their  power  of  lording  it  over  the 
Christians  was  gone,  that  all  communities  were  now 
equal,  and  that  no  sooner  had  the  Christians  been 
enfranchised  than  they  had  begun  to  surpass  the 
Moslems  in  wealth,  honour,  knowledge  and  every- 
thing else,   the  latter  resented  this   and  harboured 

[455] 


APPENDIX 

mischievous  designs.  Now,  one  of  the  articles  of  the 
Treaty  of  Paris  was  that  soldiers  should  be  drawn 
from  the  Christian  no  less  than  from  the  Moslem 
part  of  the  population;  the  Government,  however, 
did  not  observe  this  article  for  reasons  that  are  well 
known,  and  in  lieu  of  military  service  levied  a  heavy 
contribution  on  the  Christians,  £50  a  head.  This 
sum  being  more  than  they  were  able  to  pay,  they 
made  repeated  complaints  and  begged  the  Govern- 
ment to  reduce  the  amount  or  else  permit  Christians 
to  serve  in  the  army.  The  Government  would  not 
listen  to  these  appeals,  and  in  the  year  i860  insisted 
on  the  payment  of  all  arrears.  The  Orthodox  Greek 
Patriarch  at  that  time  was  a  Greek  unacquainted 
with  the  language  and  character  of  the  people.  When 
his  flock  thronged  round  him  and  encompassed  his 
residence,  begging  his  mediation  in  this  matter,  he 
wished  to  disperse  them  with  the  aid  of  the  soldiers; 
he  therefore  wrote  to  the  Governor  informing  him 
that  the  Christians  were  in  a  turbulent  and  excited 
state  in  consequence  of  the  imposition  of  the  heavy 
military  tax,  and  expressed  the  hope  that  the  Gover- 
nor would  disperse  them,  as  they  were  crowding 
round  his  house.  The  Governor  was  delighted  with 
this  communication  and  kept  the  letter  in  his  pocket 
to  serve  as  his  justification,  if  necessary,  for  the  mas- 
sacre that  he  meant  to  bring  about;  for  in  answer  to 
any  question  he  could  produce  the  letter  of  the  Patri- 
arch, attesting  the  fact  that  the  Christians  were  start- 
ing a  riot,  which  he  had  been  compelled  to  repress  by 
force  of  arms. 

[456] 


APPENDIX 

By  the  secret  instigations  of  Ahmad  Pasha  the  ex- 
citement of  the  Moslems  in  Damascus  increased  daily, 
and  presently  they  heard  with  delight  of  the  mas- 
sacres in  Hasibiyya,  Rashiyya,  Zahlah  and  Dair  al- 
Kamar.  With  the  heroes  of  Zahlah  they  had  a  long 
account  to  settle,  and  when  they  received  the  news  of 
the  fall  of  Zahlah  and  the  massacre  of  its  defenders, 
they  decorated  Damascus  and  instituted  public  re- 
joicings. The  Christians  looked  on  but  durst  not 
interfere;  only  some  of  the  more  distinguished  and 
virtuous^  of  the  Moslems  were  displeased  with  this 
proceeding  and  extinguished  the  illuminations,  and 
besides  went  round  and  urged  their  co-religionists  to 
be  sensible  and  calm.  Their  laudable  efforts  had 
little  effect;  they  were  overcome  by  the  Government 
and  the  mob.  At  the  end  of  this  chapter  we  shall 
record  the  names  of  the  noble-minded  men,  in  order 
that  their  memory  and  the  memory  of  their  services 
may  endure  in  history.  As  we  said,  the  excitement  of 
the  Moslems  kept  increasing  daily,  whilst  the  Chris- 
tians had  to  suffer  contempt  and  insult  and  contumely 
of  every  sort.  Complaint  brought  no  redress  and  they 
found  that  application  to  the  Government  was  use- 
less. Most  of  them  remained  shut  up  in  their  houses ; 
merchants  and  employes  durst  not  go  out  to  their  busi- 
ness, but  passed  the  time  in  prayer,  meditation  and 
deliberation.  Meanwhile  the  feeling  of  the  Moslems 
grew  worse  and  worse,  and  the  Christians  saw  death 
approaching. 

The  Consuls,  perceiving  the  state  of  affairs,  kept 
sending  reports  to  their  Governments,  and  when  mat- 

[457] 


APPENDIX 

ters  came  to  a  crisis  a  meeting  was  held  in  the  house 
of  the  British  Consul,  in  accordance  with  his  request, 
at  which  they  all  attended.  After  considering  what 
measures  they  could  take  to  prevent  a  massacre,  they 
agreed  to  open  their  houses  to  refugees  from  murder 
or  pillage;  and  determined  to  warn  the  Governor  of 
the  consequences  of  negligence.  The  Greek  Consul 
was  selected  to  convey  their  message  to  the  Governor, 
this  Consul  being  skilled  in  Turkish.  He  did  his 
utmost  to  impress  on  the  Governor  the  necessity  of 
calming  the  excitement,  but  without  effect;  Ahmad 
Pasha  at  first  professed  absolute  ignorance  of  the 
existence  of  any  excitement,  maintaining  that  the  city 
was  perfectly  quiet.  When,  however,  as  the  days 
passed,  it  became  impossible  for  him  to  deny  the  fact, 
he  began  to  excuse  himself  on  the  plea  that  the  sol- 
diers whom  he  had  were  not  sufficient  to  restrain  the 
mob  from  carrying  out  their  designs.  He  also  began 
to  make  an  exhibition  of  surprise  and  anxiety  at  the 
state  of  afifairs,  but  he  did  not  issue  a  single  order  to 
the  effect  that  either  the  soldiers  or  the  mob  should 
be  restrained  from  attacking  the  Christians.  When 
the  debate  became  hot  between  him  and  the  Consul 
who  was  commissioned  to  converse  with  him,  he 
would  declare  that  the  Christians  had  rebelled  against 
the  Porte  and  endeavoured  to  shake  off  their  alle- 
giance; "  and  this,"  he  said,  "  I  can  prove  by  the  let- 
ters of  their  bishops  and  chief  ecclesiastical  authori- 
ties." The  Consuls  then  went  in  a  body  to  the  palace 
of  the  Governor  and  insisted  that  he  must  do  some- 
thing to  improve  the  state  of  affairs.     Finding  he 

[458] 


APPENDIX 

could  no  longer  refuse,  he  promised  to  do  as  they 
wished,  and  issued  an  order  to  the  inhabitants  and  the 
army  that  they  should  keep  quiet  and  not  molest  the 
Christians.  This  order  was  partly  effective,  and  the 
Christians  experienced  a  certain  amount  of  relief; 
orders  w^ere  presently  sent  by  the  Governor  to  such  of 
them  as  were  in  the  employ  of  the  Government,  bid- 
ding them  have  no  fear,  and  return  to  their  duties. 
Supposing  the  excitement  to  have  subsided  they  took 
courage,  and  people  were  near  imagining  that  the 
waters  had  returned  to  their  channels. 

Ahmad  Pasha,  however,  had  no  idea  of  letting  this 
tranquillity  continue,  but  continued  his  secret  instiga- 
tions, and  the  army  with  the  mob  became  even  more 
seriously  excited  than  before,  whilst  the  Christians 
were  again  compelled  to  conceal  themselves  from' 
their  enemies.  Everyone  perceived  that  something 
terrible  was  about  to  happen,  although  the  Consuls 
of  Great  Britain  and  Greece  tried  to  urge  the  distin- 
guished Moslems  to  help  them  in  quieting  the  excite- 
ment. A  few  of  the  best  among  the  Damascenes  came 
to  their  aid,  but  their  efforts  were  unavailing;  for  the 
disturbance  kept  increasing,  and  the  ruffians  began  to 
thirst  more  and  more  for  blood.  Hearing  of  this  the 
Arabs  and  other  Moslem  neighbours  of  Damascus 
came  to  the  city  from  all  quarters,  anxious  to  gratify 
their  resentments  by  the  murder  of  Christians  and 
plunder  of  Christian  goods.  Most  unfortunately  those 
who  had  escaped  from  the  massacre  of  Hasibiyya 
arrived  in  Damascus  at  that  time,  bringing  with 
them,  as  it  were,  the  infection  of  massacre.    The  ruf- 

[459] 


APPENDIX 

fians  could  wait  no  longer,  and  the  Druzes  from  the 
outside  and  the  Moslems  from  the  inside  kept  urging 
the  Government  to  issue  a  rescript  giving  them  leave 
to  commence  slaying,  violating  women,  plundering 
goods  and  burning  houses.  Ahmad  Pasha  saw  that 
the  time  had  come  for  the  execution  of  his  purpose, 
and  fanned  the  flame  by  circulating  a  rumour  that 
the  Christians  were  planning  a  night  attack  on  the 
Moslem  quarters,  with  a  general  assault,  notwith- 
standing that  the  Christians  of  Damascus  were  the 
weakest  of  God's  creatures,  not  one  of  whom  could 
handle  a  weapon,  and  whose  only  expedient  for  self- 
defence  was  imploring  mercy  or  hiding.  The  wicked 
Governor,  whenever  he  went  to  public  prayer,  had 
the  troops  ranged  round  the  mosque,  on  the  pretence 
that  the  Christians  were  meditating  an  assault  on  his 
person.  By  means  of  these  rumours  and  slanders  the 
wrath  of  the  Moslems  was  roused  to  such  a  pitch  that 
the  continuance  of  quiet  was  impossible.  Presently 
the  Governor  removed  his  family  to  the  Citadel 
which  he  protected  with  guns,  and  this  served  as  a 
signal  to  the  Damascenes  that  the  time  was  come,  and 
they  commenced  making  preparations  for  the  abso- 
lute annihilation  of  the  Christians  of  the  city.  The 
excitement  grew  fiercer  and  fiercer,  the  preparations 
for  a  massacre  were  completed,  and  the  Christians 
despaired  of  deliverance. 

The  Governor  now  sent  a  regiment  of  soldiers  to 
the  Bab  Tuma,  where  is  the  Christian  quarter,  to  pro- 
tect the  Christians,  who,  however,  had  heard  of  the 
sort  of  protection  accorded  by  these  Turks  at  the 

[460] 


APPENDIX 

other  massacres  in  Syria,  and  were  convinced  that 
one  was  about  to  commence.  They  supposed  the  sol- 
diers had  been  sent  to  attack  them,  and  their  terror 
was  vastly  increased  when  they  learned  from  the  Hasi- 
biyya  refugees  that  this  was  the  very  regiment  that 
had  been  in  Hasibiyya  and  assisted  in  the  massacre 
there,  and  having  got  some  practice  in  such  proceed- 
ings had  come  on  to  Damascus  to  repeat  the  scenes  of 
Hasibiyya.  And,  indeed,  the  intentions  of  these  sol- 
diers were  apparent  on  their  countenances.  The 
Christians,  in  despair,  committed  their  future  to  God, 
some  of  them,  indeed,  trying  to  take  refuge  in  the 
houses  of  the  more  virtuous  Moslems  or  to  leave  the 
city  secretly  when  not  prevented  by  the  soldiers,  while 
others  tried  to  soften  the  soldiers  and  officers  by  pres- 
ents of  money.  Indeed,  these  were  so  lavishly  be- 
stowed that  the  poorest  of  these  Turkish  soldiers  be- 
came richer  than  the  most  eminent  of  the  Christians, 
the  wealth  of  the  unfortunate  Christians  being  trans- 
ferred to  these  savages,  who,  having  been  sent  to 
protect  their  lives,  attacked  them  in  contravention  of 
the  law  of  God,  the  law  of  Islam  and  the  law  of 
manhood. 

When  Ahmad  Pasha  perceived  that  further  delay 
would  be  harmful  rather  than  profitable,  and  that  all 
that  was  now  wanted  was  a  signal,  he  began  to  search 
for  something  that  would  excite  the  Moslems  to  such 
a  pitch  that  they  would  of  their  own  accord  start  on 
a  massacre  without  instructions  from  the  Govern- 
ment.   He  found  an  expedient  directly. 

The  Moslems,  especially  the  Turks,  had  at  that 

[461] 


APPENDIX 

time  repeatedly  insulted  the  Christian  religion,  anH 
complaints  about  this  had  repeatedly  been  made  to 
the  Governor.  When  he  wished  the  massacre  to  com- 
mence, he  ordered  the  arrest  of  three  Moslem  lads 
who  had  openly  insulted  the  Cross,  and  sent  them 
bound  and  escorted  to  the  Christian  quarter,  with 
orders  to  sweep  its  streets  as  a  punishment  for  their 
conduct.  The  Moslems,  seeing  them  in  this  state, 
and  being  told  by  the  Turks  that  they  were  going  to 
act  as  slaves  to  the  Christians  because  they  had  in- 
sulted the  Cross,  stopped  them  at  the  entrance  of  the 
Umayyad  Mosque,  and  loosed  their  bonds  without 
opposition  from  the  soldiers.  Entering  the  Mosque 
they  deliberated  for  a  short  time,  after  which  they 
left  the  building,  one  of  them  shouting  at  the  top  of 
his  voice,  "  Help,  help,  Mohammed's  Religion;  the 
Cause  of  the  Faith;  the  Cause  of  God  against  the 
Unbelieving  Nazarenes!  "  The  cry  went  from  mouth 
to  mouth,  the  people  became  infuriated,  and  the 
Moslem  rabble  rushed  from  every  quarter  upon  the 
Christian  quarter  like  ravening  wolves,  eager  to  slake 
their  fury  by  spilling  Christian  blood.  This,  then, 
was  the  beginning  of  the  terrible  massacre. 

While  rushing  upon  the  Christian  quarter  the  riot- 
ers said  to  each  other,  "  Fear  not  that  the  Govern- 
ment will  intervene  or  that  the  soldiers  will  oppose 
our  holy  enterprise,  but  slaughter  the  Christians  to 
a  man  this  day;  make  their  homes  the  food  of  the 
flame,  and  let  their  woman  taste  the  bitterness  of  dis- 
honour; rid  yourselves  after  such  long  endurance  of 
these  Nazarene  unbelievers."    By  order  of  the  Gover- 

[462] 


APPENDIX 

nor  a  blank  discharge  was  fired  at  the  Greek  Ortho- 
dox Church ;  it  set  some  matting  alight,  and  when  the 
rioters  saw  the  flame  they  began  to  kindle  fires  on  all 
sides  of  the  Christian  quarter,  and  entering  the  houses 
began  to  slay  and  pillage.  The  Turkish  soldiers 
opened  the  doors  to  the  invaders  and  prevented  the 
Christians  from  escaping;  before  midday  the  whole 
quarter  was  a  sheet  of  flame,  and  in  the  following 
night  its  appearance  might  have  whitened  an  infant's 
hair.  There  were  wretched  creatures  trying  to  escape 
from  the  jaws  of  the  fire,  when  the  walls  fell  down 
with  them,  and  they  were  left  to  die  in  indescribable 
torment.  When  day  dawned  and  the  rioters  saw  that 
there  was  nothing  left  to  plunder,  they  employed 
their  weapons  upon  all  who  had  escaped  from  the 
fire,  slaughtering  every  Christian  whom  they  could 
find,  sparing  neither  young  nor  old;  they  cut  down 
the  mothers  and  violated  the  daughters;  they  com- 
mitted every  form  of  atrocity.  The  blood  of  the  vic- 
tims flowed  in  the  streets  in  rills.  Destruction  was 
everywhere;  nothing  could  be  seen  in  the  Christian 
quarter  except  heads  on  which  bullets  were  raining 
from  the  Turkish  rifles,  chests  trampled  by  horse- 
hoofs,  corpses  partly  devoured  by  flames  and  turned 
into  ashes  or  charcoal  blacker  than  night.  The  cry 
of  women  and  children  rose  to  heaven  and  the  blood 
of  the  slain  flowed  in  the  streets  imploring  succour. 
To  the  spectator  it  seemed  as  though  not  a  Christian 
soul  remained  alive  except  some  who  had  been  spared 
by  some  of  the  ruffians  for  evil  purposes,  and  who 
were  begging  for  death,  and  welcomed  it  after  the 

[463  ] 


APPENDIX 

terrors  that  they  had  witnessed.  Six  thousand  inno- 
cent persons  perished  after  enduring  unspeakable 
agonies. 

Still,  even  in  that  gloomy  time  there  were  not 
wanting  noble  men,  a  remnant  of  whom  are  always  to 
be  found  surviving,  however  savage  the  majority  may 
be.  Among  the  savage  murderers  there  was  found  a 
man  of  high  station,  noble  worth,  lofty  aspirations 
and  attachment  to  Islamic  virtues,  high-born  and  of 
high  repute,  a  master  with  the  sword  and  a  master 
with  the  pen,  a  hero  and  a  champion,  familiar  with 
war  and  its  terrors,  wherein  he  had  played  the  man. 
In  the  days  of  his  power  his  enemies  had  been  Chris- 
tians, whom  he  had  fought  courageously;  when  for- 
tune had  played  him  false  and  his  sovereignty  had 
come  to  an  end,  he  had  resolved  on  retiring  to  Da- 
mascus, there  to  pass  the  remainder  of  his  days 
in  such  courses  as  pleased  God.  He  detested  the 
treacherous  murder  of  the  weak,  and  tried  to  restrain 
others  from  such  acts  as  are  forbidden  by  the  Moslem 
religion.  Among  these  debased  mobs  he  shone  like 
a  gem  in  dull  black  stone;  his  spirit  rose  superior  to 
the  intrigues  of  the  Turks  and  the  machinations  of 
the  mischief-makers,  and  the  deeds  of  the  savages. 
This  person  was  the  unique  Emir  Abd  al-Kadir  of 
Algiers,  whose  memory  God  render  fragrant,  and  on 
whom  may  He  confer  a  thousand  mercies;  and  may 
He  make  many  like  to  him  among  the  sons  of  Adam. 
He  it  was  who  showed  himself  brave  and  manly 
among  the  herd  of  evil-doers,  cowards,  dastards, 
villains,  and  traitors. 

[464] 


APPENDIX 

Having  perceived  on  men's  faces  the  signs  of  un- 
holy intentions,  and  having  inferred  from  the  negli- 
gence of  the  authorities  in  repressing  the  rioters  that 
the  authorities  either  had  a  hand  in  the  business  them- 
selves or  were  actually  the  instigators  of  the  atrocities, 
v^hen  one  day  he  met  a  number  of  the  chief  Moslems 
in  the  presence  of  Ahmad  Pasha,  after  a  long  dis- 
cussion he  persuaded  them  that  such  treachery  to- 
w^ards  a  feeble  community  that  did  not  amount  to  a 
tenth  of  the  population  of  Damascus — exclusive  of 
the  army,  and  exclusive  of  the  fact  that  the  Christians 
were  utterly  unaccustomed  to  fighting — could  only 
be  regarded  as  an  infamous  piece  of  cowardice,  bring- 
ing disgrace  on  him  who  was  guilty  of  it;  and  that 
an  attack  on  "  the  people  of  the  Covenant " — the 
legal  name  for  tolerated  sects  living  under  Moslem 
rule — so  long  as  they  remained  obedient  to  the 
Moslem  government,  was  a  violation  of  the  Sacred 
Code,  and  was  not  permitted  by  any  religious  system. 
The  Governor,  being  unable  to  refuse  his  assent  to 
these  propositions,  agreed  to  take  joint  steps  to  allay 
the  excitement  and  to  protect  the  Christians.  Hence, 
when  Abd  al-Kadir  learned  of  the  dispatch  of  the 
regiment  to  the  Christian  quarter  shortly  before  the 
butchery,  his  apprehensions  were  appeased,  and  he 
supposed  that  he  had  done  his  duty  and  succeeded  in 
carrying  out  his  noble  purpose.  The  Turkish  Gov- 
ernor, however,  and  his  satellites  had  no  thought 
about  honour  nor  about  any  code  save  that  of  their 
passion  for  blood  and  plunder,  whence,  overriding 
all  laws,  they  perpetrated  those  acts  which  have  been 

[465] 


APPENDIX 

narrated.  But  when  Abd  al-Kadir  heard  of  this,  he 
sent  his  followers  at  night-time  to  every  quarter  of 
Damascus  to  search  everywhere  for  Christians  and 
bring  them,  wherever  found,  to  the  Emir's  palace, 
protecting  them  on  the  way  from  the  rioters.  The 
whole  of  the  night  and  the  following  day  Abd  al- 
Kadir  kept  gathering  these  poor  wretches  into  his 
house  where  he  provided  them  with  food  and  drink 
at  his  own  expense  and  did  his  best  to  console  them, 
allay  their  fears  and  promise  them  an  alleviation  of 
their  trials.  No  nobler  conduct  has  ever  been  heard 
of.  Many  a  time  he  went  out  himself  and  passed 
through  the  streets  in  which  the  butchery  was  going 
on,  and  with  his  own  hand  kept  the  murderer  off  his 
prey.  Going  to  the  booths,  churches  and  consulates, 
where  refugees  were  gathered  by  the  hundred  and 
thousand,  he  took  them  under  his  protection  and  led 
them  off  to  his  own  house,  whence  he  returned  to  de- 
liver a  fresh  batch.  He  also  encouraged  his  own 
servants  to  do  the  same,  and  begged  them  to  exert 
themselves  therein.  Finally,  when  he  had  got  round 
him  12,000  refugees,  his  palace  was  too  small  to  hold 
them,  and  he  requested  the  brutal  Governor,  Ahmad 
Pasha,  to  order  that  they  should  be  received  in  the 
Citadel,  after  having  obtained  from  the  Turk  the 
most  solemn  promise  that  he  would  do  them  no  harm. 
The  unfortunate  people  were  in  consequence  placed 
in  the  Citadel  where  they  remained  days  and  weeks 
without  clothing,  shelter  or  food,  and  where  they  en- 
dured every  kind  of  misery  after  the  trials  that  they 
had  undergone.     God  alone  knows  the  anguish  of 

[466] 


APPENDIX 

these  refugees  over  the  dear  ones  whom  they  had  lost; 
over  their  personal  losses  and  over  the  miserable 
plight  to  which  they  had  come;  especially  as  most  of 
them  believed  the  Citadel  was  going  to  turn  out  a 
death-trap  like  the  Palace  of  Hasibi3rya  or  Dair  al- 
Kamar  or  Rashiyya,  and  that  one  day  the  Governor 
would  open  the  gates  and  order  the  Druzes  and 
Turks  to  massacre  them  to  a  man,  as  had  happened 
to  their  brethren.  This  apprehension  was  strength- 
ened one  day  when  an  officer  was  sent  by  the  Gover- 
nor with  orders  to  separate  the  women  from  the  men 
for  a  purpose  that  w^as  not  then  explained;  the  refu- 
gees gave  up  all  hope  and  made  ready  for  death, 
imploring  mercy  for  those  whom  they  were  preced- 
ing to  Eternity  and  who  had  still  some  chance  of 
abiding  in  the  vale  of  tears.  Fortunately  this  fear 
was  not  realised — chiefly  through  the  efforts  of  the 
brave  and  philanthropic  Abd  al-Kadir.  The  efforts 
of  the  Consuls  wxre  of  no  avail,  for  the  authorities 
regarded  them  as  enemies  and  wished  to  attack  them 
with  the  rest. 

When  the  number  of  refugees  assembled  in  Abd 
al-Kadir's  house  became  very  great — in  addition  to 
those  who  had  been  sent  to  the  Citadel — the  rioters 
wished  to  kill  them  also  to  a  man,  and  resented  the 
conduct  of  the  Emir  Abd  al-Kadir  in  helping  the 
Christians.  Gathering  round  his  house  in  masses 
they  began  to  shout  and  cry  and  demand  the  im- 
mediate surrender  of  the  Christians,  failing  which 
they  threatened  to  burn  his  house  and  destroy  him 
with  his  proteges;  thinking  that  Abd  al-Kadir  was  a 

[467] 


APPENDIX 

coward  like  the  rest,  who  would  be  moved  by  threats 
and  menaces.  Hearing  this,  the  hero  ordered  his 
followers  to  gather  round  his  castle;  they  were  picked 
champions,  whose  prowess  had  been  tried  on  battle- 
fields, as  when  under  their  heroic  leader  they  had 
won  a  victory  over  the  Sultan  of  Morocco  at  Mulaya, 
being  2500  against  60,000.  These  troops  maintained 
their  allegiance  to  their  prince,  and  such  of  them  as 
survived  the  wars  had  come  with  him  to  Damascus. 
When,  therefore,  he  summoned  them  on  that  terrible 
day,  they  surrounded  him  on  every  side,  and  the 
rioters  seeing  their  valiant  appearance,  took  to  their 
heels;  whereupon  the  Emir  advanced  by  himself  into 
the  middle  of  the  cowardly  rioters  and  addressed 
them  to  the  following  effect:  "  Avaunt,  ye  Moslem 
dogs,  ye  scum  of  mankind!  Is  it  thus  that  ye  honour 
your  Prophet  and  obey  his  holy  ordinances,  ye  vilest 
of  unbelievers?  Did  God's  Apostle  bid  ye  deal  thus 
with  the  people  of  the  Covenant  who  were  to  be  safe 
under  your  shadow?  Is  it  this  which  Arabian  cour- 
age nerves  ye  to  do?  Plague  on  ye  for  cowardly 
traitors,  who  murder  the  Christians  who  are  fewer 
and  weaker  than  yourselves,  and  reckon  this  to  be 
valour,  when  it  is  disgrace  itself.  Go  back  at  once 
or  I  will  not  sheathe  this  sword  till  I  have  saturated 
it  with  your  blood,  and  will  command  my  men  to 
fall  upon  you,  until  not  a  single  coward  remain  to  tell 
what  has  happened  to  his  brethren.  And  be  well 
assured  that  ye  shall  repent  in  dust  and  ashes  when 
the  Franks  shall  come  to  avenge  these  injured  Chris- 
tians, and  shall  turn  your  mosques  into  churches,  and 

[468] 


APPENDIX 

make  of  you  an  example  to  them  that  will  be  warned. 
Go  back,  cease  from  your  folly,  or  I  will  make  this 
hour  the  last  of  your  lives,  and  will  take  retribution 
from  you  for  the  evil  which  you  have  committed." 

The  mighty  man's  words  terrified  the  hearts  of 
the  dastards,  and  they  went  back  dismayed,  and  so 
12,000  lives  were  saved  through  the  instrumentality 
of  one  hero.  His  name  shall  last  so  long  as  honour 
lasts  or  courage  is  remembered. 

[There  follows  a  list  of  other  eminent  Moslems 
who  aided  the  efforts  of  Abd  al-Kadir.] 

This  is  the  substance  of  the  terrible  story.  We 
narrate  it  here  and  leave  the  reader  to  say  to  himself 
what  he  pleases.  The  number  of  the  slain  in  Damas- 
cus and  its  suburbs  was  6000,  and  of  those  slain  else- 
where about  the  same.  The  whole  of  this  happened 
in  the  month  of  June  of  the  Black  Year  (i860) .  The 
number  of  persons  left  homeless  and  destitute  was 
more  than  150,000;  the  number  of  women  and  chil- 
dren that  became  widows  and  orphans  was  not  less 
than  20,000;  the  number  of  houses  belonging  to  inno- 
cent Christians  that  were  burned  down  was  about 
7000;  the  number  of  persons  who  died  in  this  month 
of  the  effects  of  fright,  grief,  anxiety  and  sudden 
poverty  was  not  less  than  14,000;  and  the  amount 
of  money  pillaged  and  looted  was  not  less  than 
£3,000,000. 

Consider  these  matters — God  guard  you — and  pray 
God  that  He  will  deliver  the  earth  from  the  evil- 
doers. 

[469] 


GLOSSARY 


Abbasid:  descended  from  the  Prophet's  uncle  Abbas.  Name  of 
the  third  Mohammedan  dynasty,  whose  capital  was  ordinarily 
Baghdad. 

Abd:  slave  of.  As  an  element  in  proper  names  prefixed  to  names 
of  God. 

Abu  :  father  of.   A  form  of  name  taken  by  Arabs,  called  kunyah. 

Agha:  master,  commander,  or  chief  (Turkish.) 

Ayyubid:  descended  from  Ayyub  (Job),  father  of  Saladin. 

Azhar:  brilliant,  masculine  of  Zahra,  a  title  of  the  Prophet's 
daughter  Fatimah. 

Bab:  door,  gate. 

Bahr  :  sea,  great  river,  used  for  the  Nile. 

Bahri:  of  the  Nile,  name  given  to  first  Mameluke  dynasty,  be- 
cause of  their  barracks  on  an  island  in  the  Nile. 

Bait:  house,  room. 

Bey:  prince  or  noble.   Turkish  title. 

Birket:  pool  (of),  pond  (of). 

Burji:  of  the  Castle,  name  given  to  second  series  of  Mameluke 
dynasties,  from  their  barracks  on  the  Citadel. 

Caliph:  successor,  ordinarily  of  the  Prophet,  in  the  sovereignty 
of  the  Moslems. 

Caravanserai  :  inn  for  the  lodging  of  caravans. 

DiKKAH :  bench. 

Diwan  :  bureau,  public  office,  council. 

Efendi  :  Turkish  title,  corresponding  with  our  "  esquire,"  usually 
confined  to  Moslems,  but  now  not  exclusively. 

Emir:  governor,  name  given  to  high  officials  at  the  Mameluke 
court. 

Fatimide:  descended  from  Fatimah,  the  Prophet's  daughter  and 

[471] 


GLOSSARY 

her  husband  Ali,  the  Prophet's  cousin.    Name  taken  by  the 

Egj^ptian    Caliphs,   who,    rightly   or  wrongly,    claimed   such 

descent. 
Gharbiyyah:  western  (fem.) 
Harah  :  street. 
HiSN :  fort,  fortress. 
Ibn:  son  of. 

Ikhshid:  title  used  in  Farghanah  for  sovereign. 
Imam:  leader,  usually  in  prayer. 
IwAN :  see  liwan. 
Kadi:  judge. 

Kan  :  title  of  Mongol  rulers  of  Baghdad. 
Karafah  :  cemetery. 
Ka'ah  :  saloon,  large  room. 
Ketkhuda:  steward. 
Khan:  sovereign  (in  Turkey)  ;  noble  (in  Persia)  ;  storehouse  for 

merchandise  (chiefly  in  Syria). 
Khanagah:  hospice. 

Khedive:  king  or  prince.     Persian  title,  given  the  Egytian  ruler. 
Kiblah  :  niche  marking  direction  of  prayer  in  a  mosque. 
KuBBAH :  cupola. 
Liwan:  word  employed  by  writers  on  Egyptian  architecture  for 

an  arched  hall,  usually  with  one  side  open  towards  a  court; 

aisle  of  a  mosque. 
Madanah:  minaret.    Madanat:  minaret  of. 
Madrasah  :  school,  college,  place  of  instruction. 
Maktab:  elementary  school. 
Maksurah:  portion  of  a  mosque  marked  off  for  the  use  of  the 

sovereign  or  governor. 
Mashhad:  grave  of  a  saint. 
Malik:  king.    Title  taken  by  Egyptian  rulers,  and  sometimes  by 

their  ministers. 
Mameluke:  slave. 
Mihrab:  see  Kiblah. 
Minaret:  tower  adjoining  a  mosque,  with  one  or  more  galleries 

whence  the  call  to  prayer  is  chanted. 

[472] 


GLOSSARY 

Minbar:  pulpit  of  a  mosque. 

Mosque:  Mohammedan  place  of  worship. 

Mueddin:  official  whose  business  it  is  to  chant  the  call  to  prayer. 

Muristan:  hospital. 

Pasha:  title  given  to  very  high  officials  in  the  Turkish  Empire. 

Ribat:  small  monastery. 

Sayyid,  f em.  Sayyidah  :  title  given  to  descendants  of  the  Prophet. 

Sebil:  public  drinking  fountain. 

Sheik:  head  of  a  tribe;  doctor  of  theology. 

Shi'ah  :  partisans  of  Ali,  as  opposed  to  orthodox  Moslems. 

SiDi:  abbreviation  of  Sayyidi,  my  lord,  used  of  Egyptian  princes. 

Sufi:  Mohammedan  mystic  or  ascetic. 

Sultan:  title  assumed  by  Mohammedan  sovereigns,  who  ruled 

under  the  nominal  suzerainty  of  the  Caliph.     In  the  Ottoman 

Empire  the  two  titles  are  combined. 
SuNNi:  orthodox  Moslem,  opposed  to  Shi'i. 
Takiyyah:  monastery. 

Ukalah  or  Wakalah  :  building  for  the  storage  or  merchandise. 
Zahir:  title  taken  by  Sultans,  signifying  victorious. 
Zawiyah  :  cell,  small  monastery. 


[473] 


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